Fireworks and Puppets
by koishii-girl
Summary: Sasori, a puppeteer in an entertainment company, is assigned to share his apartment with Deidara, a new performer. Though set as rivals as soon as they meet, they form an close bond over the months that pass. Could this bond be love? AU. SasoDei slash.
1. Chapter 1, Part 1

**NOTE**: I wrote this story because my friend challenged me to write it. She told me it should be in the present tense, at least five chapters long, and should have a chapter abut swimming. Did I do it right? Reader, you are the judge. Please review, and I love constructive criticism. :-)

**Disclaimer**: I wish the characters here were mine, but sadly they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

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**June: Beginning**

Sasori stands up near the lights of the theater.

Long strings seem to come out of his hands as he uses them to control the two life-size marionettes that make up a part of his act. His assistants rush around him, controlling the secondary puppets, but Sasori ignores them.

A wild grin stretches across his usually serious face. This is the only thing worth enjoying in his life. His show is pure bliss.

-------------------

Later, he's sitting in his apartment, across the road from the Akatsuki Theater, the place where he works.

His apartment is dark and dusty. He never uses the electric lights, only candles. The candles try to light the room, but fail. It's almost as if they're sucked into the darkness. The curtains are drawn against the city lights, and puppets haunt the darkened corners. Yet, even through all the dust and dirt, the room has a distinct air of neatness. The materials on the table are organized into neat groups, the candles are bunched in exact clusters of six on small wooden racks sticking every three feet from the walls of the room, and the puppets' darkly garish outfits are dusty, but perfect.

Puppets. There are puppets everywhere. After all, Sasori is a puppeteer, the best one, probably, in the world. He spends all his time with his puppets. In fact, right now he is fixing his favorite one.

Carefully, like the master artisan he is, he tightens her loose joints and greases them. He sits back, and sighs with satisfaction. His greatest work of art lies limply on his table. Once again, she is finished and ready for her next performance. He looks at her lazily. She is beautiful. She has long golden hair, which Sasori keeps in a high ponytail off stage, blue eyes, and a witty, charismatic face. Sasori calls her Day. He isn't sure why. Maybe because she is as beautiful as a sunny day? No, that's too cheesy. Besides, Sasori doesn't even think sunny days are beautiful. He prefers night or rain. Both, if possible. "Pity you aren't real, Day." he mutters.

His cell phone rings loudly. Sasori flips it open and presses it to his ear. "Hello?" he asks the machine.

Pein, the stage manager's, voice talks gratingly out of the earpiece. "Sasori, we need you over here at the theater for a meeting. We've found a replacement for that no-good snake-charmer."

Great. Another night, which Sasori could have used to work on his puppets, going to waste.

These meetings could last for nearly the whole night, with everyone sitting around completely silent. Nevertheless, it is Sasori's duty to attend them, so he hangs up, puts on the uniform jacket (black with red shape that looks like a cloud on the back), and leaves, locking the door behind him. He crosses the street and enters the theater through its back door.

The big dressing room that he steps into is large, well lit, and clean. The walls are whitewashed, but slightly dingy. The floor is covered with liver-brown carpet. There are dressing tables, chairs, and racks full of odd clothing in it.

As soon as Sasori enters, a tall man with spiky hair punches him jovially in the arm. "What's up, Red?" he asks. Sasori rubs his arm and tries to ignore the use of his hated birth name. "Joe, my name is not Red anymore. It's Sasori, ok?" he replies to his colleague.

"Whatever, man.", answers Joe, who on stage is known as Kisame, the shark-bane. Sasori is not the only one who prefers to be known by his stage name. ALL of the performers despise their birth names.

Kisame sits down on the floor, in between Hidan, the masochistic voodoo master and Kakuzu, the theater's miserly treasurer. Sasori walks to a bench, where Zetsu, the human plant, Pein, and Pein's wife are sitting. Pein greets Sasori and asks him if he had seen Itachi, the hypnotist. Sasori shakes his head and sits down next to Zetsu.

"Hey there Sasori. You look tasty." greets Zetsu with a nasty smile.

Sasori shudders and moves down to the floor next to Hidan.

The whole company knows Zetsu is... well, special. Zetsu never takes off his stage costume, and always talks in a rather cannibalistic way. He also has slightly disturbing mood swings at regular intervals. Sasori suspects that Zetsu might be bipolar, but he has never bothered asking him.

They hear a knock at the door. "Come in!" shouts Pein. Itachi slips in through the door, along with someone else. He drops right down next to Sasori and stares expectantly at Pein.

Pein points at the clock on the wall angrily. "You're five minutes late!" he roars at Itachi. "Where were you?"

Itachi turns his gaze away, bored. "This idiot couldn't find his baggage at the airport," he explains, pointing at the other person who had come in with him.

Sasori, who has been ignoring the person so far, looks at him. He sees long blonde hair in a high ponytail, shiny blue eyes, and a pretty face that shows a strong personality. He stands up in alarm. Confused questions blow about his head. "Day!?" he exclaims. "How the hell??"

Hidan pulls him back down sharply. "Siddown you bastard. He's not your goddamn puppet." he whispers in Sasori's ear.

However, the blonde had heard him, and exclaimed in surprise, "How do you know my name, un? I've never seen you before!"

Kisame snickers. "Day? My Aunt's called Day! Are you a woman, then?"

Day glares at Kisame "Dei's my nickname, you freak, un." he growls.

Kisame grins nastily. "Then what's your real name? Darla? Deirdre? DAYANARA???"

'Dei' blushes bright red. He mumbles something. "I can't hear you." says Kisame, cupping his ear jokingly. "What's your name, girl?"

"I said: I'm Deidara, you deaf bozo!" shouts Dei, glaring hatred at Kisame.  
Kisame opens his mouth to make some scathing comeback, when Pein stands up and glares at him too. Kisame quickly shuts his mouth.

Since everyone is quiet, Pein clears his throat and introduces 'Dei' properly. "This is Deidara. He's going to be part of our show from now onwards..."

Kisame interrupts him loudly. "We aren't gonna feed this girl to Zetsu? Damn, I wanted to watch!"

Pein looks at Hidan. Hidan smacks Kisame on the head and berates him with a string of very colorful words. Kisame shuts up again.

Pein thanks Hidan, but before he can continue Itachi asks him a question. "What does he do? What's his act?"

Pein looks at Deidara. Dei beams at Itachi and answers cheerfully, "I'm a pyrotechnical artist, un! My fireworks and smoke effects are really famous."

He feels rather taken aback by Itachi's response. Itachi turns his face away, as if Deidara is contaminated. "Another self-absorbed artist, huh? Looks like you've got competition, Sasori."

Sasori frowns. "Fireworks aren't art. They are pretty, but they come and go too fast to be truly appreciated. Art should be something that lives on forever and never ends, so that we, and all the people of the future, have time to appreciate its immortal beauty." he says.

Deidara's eyes blaze. "How dare you insult my art, un? The fleeting beauty of a rocket bursting in the sky, that loud bang that makes everyone yell, the cloud of smoke left after the end of the firework, how come that's not art, un? You love its beauty and you miss it when it's gone, so you light another one, and on and on until you run out. Then you wish you had more, and you really appreciate them, un. That's real art. ART IS A BANG, UN!" he shouts.

Sasori's frown deepens. "There's no need to get angry. I was just telling you my view, that's all." he says defensively.

Deidara snorts. "Your view is wrong then." he grouses, but Sasori can tell Deidara has forgiven him already, simply because he is a fellow artist.

Kisame gets up and yawns. "If we're going to start this art crap, I'm outta here." Itachi gets up too, silently. They both leave.

"Oh, good, the weirdoes are gone, un!" exclaims Deidara tactlessly. Everyone glares at him. He slaps his forehead. "Sorry.", he says apologetically. "Who were those guys anyway, un?"

"Itachi, our hypnotist, brought you here and Kisame, our shark man, called you a girl." explains Pein.

Deidara scowls. "I hate those guys, un." he mutters. Then he looks around at everyone. "Who are you guys?" he asks.

Pein looks at Zetsu. Zetsu gets up. "Right. I'm Zetsu, you delicious looking morsel."

Deidara shivers. He is not used to Zetsu's cannibalistic descriptions.

Zetsu points to each person in turn, introducing him or her. "You already know Pein, our yummy stage manager. The appetizing chick over there is Konan, Pein's wife. This white haired, bad-mouthed, violent, bad tasting and masochistic guy is Hidan. The greedy looking meal is Kakuzu, and that tasty redhead is Sasori." He sits down again.

Deidara feels quite disturbed by Zetsu's descriptions, but he raises a hand and says, "Hi.", simply.

"Hi.", answers everyone monotonously, and looks at him.

He looks back, suddenly shy.

Zetsu breaks eye contact and yawns.

The shyness leaves Deidara in an instant. He yawns too, and sits down on the floor, facing everyone. After a few boring, silent minutes, he looks at Pein and says, "Hey, sorry to bother you, but I'm really tired after my flight, un. You said I'd have a place to stay."

Pein glares at Deidara for breaking the "sacred" silence before telling him, "The Theater owns an apartment block for the permanent performers to stay in. There are two floors, two apartments per floor, and we share, two people to each apartment. You'll be living with Sasori. His last partner ran away to start his own circus, so he has space for you."

Deidara beams at Sasori, only to find Sasori looking at Pein in utter shock.

"WHAT?!?" Sasori exclaims. He stands up suddenly. "But I need the space for all my puppets! There's not enough space for anyone else in my apartment. NO WAY is he living with me!"

Pein looks skeptically at Sasori and says, "You know the rules, Sasori. It's two per house or else you have to find your own living space, and you know how hard that is in this city. You tidy up your puppets and live with Deidara, or you're out."

Sasori frowns. He had tried desperately to find another house when his old partner's snake kept escaping. The only apartment within his small salary had been tiny, leaky, and way too far from the theater. He agrees grudgingly.

Pein smiles (a thing he rarely does) and claps his hands. "This meeting is adjourned, you can all go home." He walks up to Deidara, who stands up eagerly, and Sasori, who is standing and staring angrily at nothing. He pokes Sasori. Sasori regains attentiveness and stares at him instead.

Pein makes an impatient gesture towards the door and says, "Come on, Sasori; help Deidara take his luggage to your apartment."

Sasori nods and looks around for Deidara's suitcase. He doesn't see it. "Where's your stuff?" he asks Deidara.

"I left my bags outside." answers Deidara. "I didn't feel like carrying them in." He heads towards the door and opens it. He steps outside and screams. He steps back in, soaking wet. His long hair is plastered against his face, and he looks utterly downcast.

He looks straight at Sasori and says pointedly, "It's raining out there." Pein, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Zetsu roar with laughter.

"You stepped into the torrent from the roof, right?" laughs Hidan.

Sasori smiles a small, wry smile. "We've all done it sometime." he declares. He walks out, carefully avoiding the deluge from the roof. When he steps out into the rain, he turns around. "Coming, Brat?" he calls to Deidara.

"Brat?" Deidara asks Pein. "Does he mean me?" Pein nods and pushes Deidara out of the door.

Deidara steps straight under the small waterfall he had stepped into earlier. He curses and quickly steps out of it. Then he walks down to Sasori. He points the way to his (now soaked) luggage, and he and Sasori cross the road to the apartment, each carrying two suitcases.


	2. Chapter 1, Part 2

Deidara enters Sasori's apartment and puts the suitcases he was carrying inside the door of the apartment. He looks around in disgust. He disapproves of the puppets, the darkness, and the dirt.

Sasori silently lights the candles that illuminate his living room. Then he settles down at the table, and starts to work on a male blonde puppet.

Dei walks over to Sasori and watches him work for a few minutes. Then he takes a deep breath and breaks the silence. "Hey, Sasori, why don't you use the lights, un? You'll ruin your eyes if you work in this darkness."

With ought looking at Dei, Sasori answers, "I like darkness."

Dei snorts. He walks over to the light switch on the wall, and flips it. Nothing happens. He looks at the empty light bulb socket on the roof, and turns around to Sasori. "Do you have light bulbs, un?"

"No.", answers Sasori.

Dei frowns. "You just don't want to tell me, right?"

Sasori gives a weary sigh and turns around in his chair. He knows by now that he will not get any work done while Deidara is in the room.

"There may be some in the storage room. Now go away and stop bothering me, Brat."

Deidara glares at him. "Listen, you. Enough with the Brat thing, un. I'm probably older than you, so that would make you the brat, not me."

Sasori raises one eyebrow. "I'm thirty four years old." he says.

"WHAT?!?" exclaims Deidara. Sasori looks very young, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old. Deidara lowers his head.

"I'm twenty-one.", he says quietly. "I guess I am the Brat, Sasori no Danna."

Sasori frowns. "What did you just call me?" Deidara smiles a little bit. "Sasori no Danna. It's Japanese for 'Master Sasori'."

Sasori raises one eyebrow. "Why would you call me 'master'?", he asks quietly.

Deidara sits down carefully in a fragile-looking armchair, and looks surprised when it doesn't break. He answers Sasori's question. "We both call ourselves artists, even though I disagree with you, and you are older than me. Plus, I like how it sounds, un. What do you think, Sasori no Danna, un?"

Sasori shrugs. This new nickname does have a ring to it, he thinks, but he doesn't say anything. Instead, he stands up, and says, "Bring your luggage. I'll show you where to put your stuff."

Deidara looks at his four bulging suitcases. "Show me around and I'll bring them afterwards, ok?"

Sasori shrugs. He walks off down a small hall. He points out the bathroom, and warns Deidara not to go into the storage-room, saying, "I have lots of important stuff in there, and if I see anything out of place, I'll blame you."

As he walks to the next closed door, Deidara shoots a questioning look at the door of the storeroom. He wonders what's inside there, but he can't sneak in while Sasori's around. Maybe some other time...

"Coming, Brat?" Sasori's voice comes out of the room he has just entered.

"Yeah, coming, un." answers Dei. He walks calmly into the other room.

Like the living room and the bathroom, this room is dark, dusty, and pristinely neat. There are two twin beds, each pressed against a different wall. One of the beds isn't dusty at all, its bed-sheets are clean and neatly folded, and it looks much more comfortable than the other does.

Deidara flops down onto that bed. He looks up at Sasori. "So this is where I'm sleeping, un?"

"No.", answers Sasori. "You sleep on the other bed."

Deidara pushes himself up and looks at the other bed. He notices, to his disgust, that it's only a camp bed, made neatly, but covered in a fair inch of dust. It looks very uncomfortable. He wrinkles his nose. "I have to sleep on that wreck?" he asks.

Sasori looks at the bed and the same thoughts Deidara had been having the moment before flash through his head. He answers Dei's question. "Yes, you have to sleep here. I'll get you new bedclothes later. You get your bags and put your stuff in that chest of drawers." He gestures towards a small set of drawers next to Deidara's camp bed.

Deidara thinks about his four suitcases and frowns. "My stuff won't fit in there." he says.

Sasori shrugs and leaves the room.

Deidara gets off Sasori's bed, and walks to his own. He pulls off the dusty bed sheets off the hard mattress and the pillowcase off the pillow. A naughty smile creeps to his face, and he dumps the dirty sheets out the small window. He hears a yell from below. He sticks his head out of the window and looks down.

A very angry Kisame looks up at him. Deidara notices that Kisame is dressed up nicely. "Sorry, Kisame!" he says, trying to sound sorry. Deidara is still angry with Kisame for calling him a girl earlier that evening, so he sounds more pleased than sorry.

Kisame shouts a string of insults to rival Hidan at Deidara. "You ****** ******* *** ** * *****! I'll be late for my date, and it's all your ******* fault! Damn you, you ******* *** ** * *****!" Kisame throws a shoe at Deidara, and storms off into the night, with the pillowcase hanging over his head like some crazy hat.

Deidara's eyes fill up with tears of laughter. He sinks onto the bare mattress of the camp bed, clutches his stomach, and laughs, and laughs, and laughs. Who would have thought that Kisame was walking right under the window just as he threw out the dirty bed sheets?

After a few minutes, his laughter drains away, and he lays there in a content silence. He sighs. Revenge is sweet, but he has other stuff to do. He gets up, and walks to the living room.

He enters the living room and sees Sasori lying on the floor, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Even though Sasori is not very friendly to him, concern for his fellow artist flashes through Dei's head. He squats down next to Sasori, and taps him on the shoulder.

Sasori's eyes slide towards Deidara. "What?" he asks sharply.

"Hey, Danna, are you ok, un?"

Sasori shakes his head in response to Deidara's question. Then he bursts out, "I can't get the darn puppet's face to look right. I've never had problems making a puppet before. I'm doing everything exactly the same ways I always do when I'm making a new puppet, but..." Sasori's voice trails off and he screws his eyes shut.

Deidara stands up, and walks to the table where the puppet is limply reclining. Sure enough, Its face is all out of proportion. Deidara feels a twinge of pity. He thinks he knows exactly what is wrong with Sasori. He sits down on the dirty carpet next to Sasori, and tries to comfort him. "Hey Danna, don't get so worked up about it, un. You've probably got an art block. I get them all the time. Trust me, it'll go away soon, un."

Sasori glares at Deidara from the floor. "I never get artist's block. Only dumb wannabe artists ever get that."

Deidara feels hurt. He glares back at Sasori, and retorts. "Oh, dumb wannabe artists like you, you mean?" He gets up, grabs two of his suitcases, and stomps off to the bedroom. "And you better bring in some clean bed-sheets for me, un!" he shouts angrily over his shoulder.

Sasori sighs. He doesn't want to admit it, but he knows Deidara is right. He has got an art block. He gets up from the floor, and walks to the bedroom. He opens the door quietly, and sees Deidara angrily cramming the contents of a bulging suitcase into a drawer. He walks up to his own set of drawers, and pulls out a neatly folded (clean!) set of bedclothes. With ought a word, he starts making Deidara's bed.

Dei pretends not to notice. He is having trouble with the drawer, anyway. He can't fit all his clothes in it, no matter how much he pushes them in. "I knew I shouldn't have brought so much stuff, un." he grumbles to himself. He tries pulling some stuff out instead, but everything in the drawer has become a tangled mess.

Sasori finishes making the bed and watches with an amused expression.

Deidara feels frustrated and angry with the drawer, so he vents his anger on Sasori. "I don't see you helping, un! You're just standing there laughing at me, un, and it makes me feel SICK!" he shouts. He throws the two shirts he is holding at Sasori and turns around to the drawer again.

Sasori calmly catches the two shirts and folds them neatly. He plops them down on Deidara's bed and stands next to Deidara, who is radiating hatred so strongly that Sasori can feel it. They stand side-by side in silence for a while together, looking at the unruly drawer.

Deidara breaks the silence with a sigh. He throws himself onto his neatly made camp bed and thrusts his head into the pillow. "I give up, un." he says, his voice muffled by the pillow. "How do I get all this junk in the drawer, Danna?"

Sasori sits down next to Deidara and answers, "You fold the clothes, Brat."

Deidara considers Sasori's suggestion and he sits up, frowning. "Fold the clothes? Is this some sort of weird joke, un?" he asks.

Sasori's eyebrows shoot upwards and then they sink into a deep frown. "You don't know how to fold clothes?" he asks.

Deidara looks ashamed and shakes his head. "You see, in the place I lived before, there was this old lady who cleaned the rooms and I paid her extra to wash my clothes and keep my stuff neat, so I'm not really used to doing that stuff myself, un."

Sasori looks at Deidara with pity. He spends the next hour teaching Deidara how to fold clothes.

------

Sasori wakes up with a start. Somebody is in HIS apartment using HIS shower and singing in a loud, off-key voice. He swears under his breath and pulls off his bed sheets. He grabs a spare puppet arm as a weapon, and races towards the bathroom, ready to confront the disturber of his peace.

Sasori slams the bathroom door open, charges up to the shower, yanks open the curtains, and hits the person in the shower hard with the arm. The person yells loudly with pain and alarm.

"That's right." threatens Sasori through gritted teeth. "Scream all you want and then leave. I can't stand strangers who creep into my apartment and use my private shower. Get out before I do something stupid."

He feels two strong hands on his shoulders. Before his half-asleep brain can react, he is wrestled to the floor and someone is punching him hard.

"Can't a guy even have a shower here, Un??? All I'm doing is minding my business and taking a shower here, and you barge in and start hitting me with something!!! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, DANNA, UN?!?!?"

Sasori wakes up fully and sees Deidara, purple with rage, standing over him naked, beating him up. Sasori quickly scrambles to his feet, and races out of the bathroom, still holding the fake arm. He races into the bedroom and back into bed.

In bed, he gives a little groan. He can feel bruises springing up all over his body where Deidara had punched him. He tries to go back to sleep, but the pain doesn't let him. Why did he have to forget about his new roommate and go charging into the bathroom like an angry elephant?

------

In the bathroom, Deidara is too angry to get back into the shower. Instead, he is walking in circles around the bathroom. He rubs his chest where he had been hit by the puppet's arm and watches a big, purple bruise spread there. "Crap." He grumbles. "Having an awful scar on my chest is bad enough, but now this? God, it hurts, un!"

-----

When Deidara was six years old, he had been playing in his Uncle's store. It was a grocery store, but they had in stock one thing there that no other shop nearby ever sold.

Fireworks.

Dei was absolutely fascinated by them. He loved their beautiful, dangerous colors, and he always wanted to set one off himself. His uncle had forbidden him to even touch the fireworks, but the light-fingered little six-year old had managed to pinch one. He held it in his hands, and quietly, with a stolen match, he had set fire to it.

It had whizzed past his head and flown right into the big box full of other fireworks. Then Hell had broken loose.

Rockets had whizzed around everywhere!

People ran for cover, things caught fire, and his uncle had rushed to the telephone to call the fire brigade, but Dei had just stood there, watching the pyrotechnics explode around him. He felt like he was in heaven.

Then the fun had ended suddenly. A brightly colored rocket flew into his face. He lifted up his hands to cover his face, and the rocket exploded. He felt his hands cooking. His t-shirt had caught fire. Pain and fear like he had never felt before had gripped him like death. He ran through the store screaming.

Luckily, his uncle saw him, tore off the smoldering shirt and ran out of the store carrying Deidara in his arms. The last thing Deidara had seen before he passed out were the firefighters running into the store, and the bright flash of an escaped rocket before his eyes. Then everything had gone black.

He woke up a few hours later in the hospital, all bandaged up. He was burnt badly all over, but his hands and his chest were the worst burnt parts of his body.

They never healed totally. Ever since that day, Deidara had a long scar across the top left of his chest and two smaller scars on his hands. Yet, the incident only increased his obsession with fireworks. He felt that his scars linked him permanently with them forever. He was proud of his scars, even though they often frustrated him with their ugliness, and he wore them valiantly on his skin as a symbol of his art.

---

But right now, he is angry. He turns the shower off, leans against the wall, and tries hard to calm down. A few minutes later, he pulls off his towel and starts to dry himself quietly. Once he's dry, he wraps up in the towel again and walks out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into the bedroom.

Sasori is still in bed, with his face covered by the bed sheets.

Deidara doesn't look at him. He pulls a shirt, underpants, and a pair of jeans out of his small chest of drawers. He stands in the corner of the room and dresses quickly.

He stands there for a while staring blankly at the wall. He feels upset. Why doesn't anyone in this place like him? He never should have left his old job. There, he had been one of the most popular people in the place. Here, nobody seems to like him.

"Deidara?"

He hears Sasori's voice behind him. He turns around numbly. "What, un?" he asks. His voice is louder than he expected.

Sasori is sitting on the bed, with the sheets drawn about him. He looks ashamed and doesn't meet Deidara's eyes. "I'm sorry." he says. "I had forgotten you were here. Did I hurt you badly?"

Deidara's hand shoots to his chest where his bruise throbs bluntly. He swallows. "No." Why is he whispering? He tries to talk more loudly. "Did I hurt you, un?"

Sasori shakes his head, trying to ignore the pain shooting through his body. "I'm sorry." he repeats hollowly.

Dei sits down on the edge of Sasori's bed. Sasori may have hurt him by mistake, given him the camp bed to sleep on, and been sort of mean to him, but Deidara could forgive that. He smiles at Sasori. "Hey, no worries." he says in an undertone. "Let's start over again, ok?"

He puts his hand out towards Sasori. "Hi, I'm Deidara, un." he says.  
A small smile flickers for an instant on Sasori's face. "Hello, I'm Sasori. Nice to meet you." He extracts a hand from his bed-sheets and shakes Deidara's outstretched hand.

They stare at each other for a minute. Then Dei gets up and stretches, and says, "I'm going to make breakfast. Do you drink coffee, un?" Sasori nods. Deidara leaves the room happily.

Sasori watches him close the door. He lies back down with a grunt of pain. He does not feel ready to wake up yet.


	3. Chapter 2

August: Swim

---------

It's a hot day in the city, and sweat is running down Sasori's shirtless back. He is sitting at the table, oiling a green-haired puppet's arms.

"Hey, Danna?", comes Deidara's voice from behind him.

He tries to ignore it. Deidara always interrupts his work, and he really needs to finish this puppet for that night's performance. He concentrates his mind entirely on the puppet, but his roommate's voice cuts across his work again.

"Danna, are you listening to me, un?"

He tries to focus on the puppet again, but his technical thoughts are interrupted yet another time, when Deidara shouts, "Stop ignoring me, un!"

Sasori is heartily sick of Deidara's whining, so he spins around angrily in his chair roaring, "WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?!? Can't you see I'm trying to work?"

Deidara looks up from the magazine he was flipping through, astonished. He wonders why Sasori is so angry. All he needs to do is ask Sasori a question. He fans himself with the magazine and asks his question. "Is there a swimming pool or something nearby? It's really hot today and I want a swim, un."

Sasori jumps at the chance to get rid of Deidara. He nods. "Get on the south bus by the theater and the Pool is the fifth stop."

Deidara beams. He gets up from the rickety chair he had been sitting on and vanishes into the bedroom.

Sasori turns back towards his puppet. He finishes oiling its arms and has just started oiling its legs, when Deidara emerges from the room, wearing hot pink swimming pants and a gaudy t-shirt that sports a huge, rainbow-colored explosion on the front, while carrying a threadbare neon green towel. Sasori's eyes nearly fall out of his sockets. Deidara looks ridiculous.

Dei glares at Sasori indignantly. "There's no need to stare, un." he scolds. "I'm going swimming." And he leaves, slamming the door behind him, but a small corner of his towel gets stuck in the door. He gives it a pull, and it rips off.

Dei frowns, but doesn't stop to take the ripped piece out of the door. He runs down the stairs and out of the building to the bus stop, where the bus is just about to leave. He gets on the bus, pays the driver, and sits down. He can't wait to get to the pool!

-----

Back inside the apartment, Sasori's face contorts. He holds his stomach and laughs aloud, something he hasn't done for ages. Deidara is so annoying, but so funny! For the first time ever, he feels glad for his new roommate.

-----

The sun is setting. Sasori is feeling frantic. Tonight's show starts in an hour, and Deidara isn't back yet!

Deidara had forgotten to take the apartment's keys with him when he had left for the pool, and Sasori doesn't want to lock his roommate out. He paces up and down the living room, worried. He doesn't know what to do. He feels very angry. His previous amusement had evaporated several hours ago.

He has his back to the door when he hears the door creak open. He swerves around and bangs straight into Deidara.

Sasori steadies himself quickly, but Deidara falls over. He stays on the floor, grinning up at the ceiling. He looks so totally happy, that some of Sasori's anger evaporates and is replaced by curiosity. He leans down over Deidara, looking solemnly into his roommate's happy face. "All right, what happened? Why are you so late? You know we've got a show tonight." he scolds severely.

Deidara's grin widens even more. He sits up rapidly, causing Sasori to straighten up quickly so as not to get hit by his floppy ponytail.

Deidara starts talking hurriedly. "You'd never believe what happened, un! I got to the pool and I swum laps on my own for about an hour, right? And then this kid came up and said he's from the swimming team and he wanted to race me. So we raced, and I beat his pants off. He didn't look very happy, and he ran off, un. Then he came back a few minutes later with this HUGE guy. He dared me to race the big guy. I beat the big guy easily. Then they both went and got a pretty brunette chick. I beat her too, un. So they went and got more and more people. I beat them all, Danna! Then this redheaded teenager came up and told me to race him. I would've raced him too, but I noticed it was time for me to get back here, so I said no, un. He told me that he'd look out for me tomorrow at the pool and then we would race. I can't wait, un!"

Sasori feels shocked. "GAARA asked you to race with him???", he exclaims.

Deidara scratches his head. "Yeah, his name was something weird like that. Is he really good, or something, un?"

"That Gaara is the champion of the local swim team.", explains Sasori. "His mother died when he was born, and his father beat him while he was little. His uncle took care of him for a while, but then he committed suicide, and Gaara was left alone. Then Gaara ran away from his father and lived in the streets. None of the other kids would ever have anything to do with him, and he grew up a street fighter. Then one day he had a fight with this kid that beat him and taught him a lesson. After that, he went to live with his brother and sister, and his sister signed him up for the swim team"

"And he rocked it, un!", interrupts Deidara, his eyes shining with anticipation of the next day's race. He feels sure that it will be a tough race. Then a little thought crosses his mind. "Er, Danna?", he asks slowly. "Do you want to come with me tomorrow to the pool and watch my race, un?"

Sasori feels taken aback. Why does Deidara want him to go watch the race? He calms himself quickly, gives a little snort, and answers, "Why would I want to watch some stupid race? All that's going to happen is that you're going to lose. Anyway, I have work to do. Hurry up and get ready, will you? The show will be starting soon and we're late, Brat."

The words taste bitter in his mouth, but he knows they have to hurry to the show, so he grabs Deidara and pulls him upright. Deidara just stares at him, shocked by his rudeness. Sasori feels bad, but he puts on an I-don't-care face, picks up his stuff, and walks out of the door, leaving the keys behind on the table.

Deidara walks to the bedroom and changes into jeans and the uniform jacket, wondering why Sasori was so rude to him. Really, anyone would think he had insulted Sasori.

Anger wells up inside him, but he quickly pushes it down. In the past two months, he has learned that Sasori is very difficult to live with, and getting angry with him is no use at all. Every time Deidara had argued or thrown a tantrum, Sasori had just shrugged it off dispassionately, yet Sasori had a quick temper too, and tended to get angry over strange, trivial things, like Deidara's suggestion. "Oh well. If he doesn't want to come with me, he doesn't have to, un." soliloquizes Deidara. "I just wish he wouldn't get so angry."

He ties the laces on his atrociously orange high-topped sneakers messily, runs a comb through his long, blonde hair, picks up his bag of fireworks, jams the apartment keys into his pocket, and rushes out of the door, letting it close behind him.

He rushes to the theater.

Pein shouts at him for a full five minutes, and then he is shunted to the roof of the theater, where he sets off ten of his fireworks to announce the start of that night's shows.

As he watches his beautifully designed pyrotechnics shoot into the sky and explode in several artistic shapes, he forgets completely about Sasori's rudeness. The lights shooting into the sky are a symbol of his power. He grins up to the heavens and watches his fireworks explode one after another.

He feels utterly invincible.

----------

"See you in the evening, Danna! Wish me luck, un.", Dei calls happily over his shoulder as he leaves the apartment in his ludicrous t-shirt and bright pink swimming pants.

Sasori, wearing a navy blue robe over his pajamas, nods sleepily. "Good luck, Brat.", he mumbles as the door closes behind Deidara. He squints at the clock hanging from the wall. Its mechanical hands point out 8:30 AM. He scratches his head and wonders why Deidara had left so early in the morning.

He stumbles through the house to the kitchen. He gropes around sleepily for the coffee pot. He can't find it. He swears under his breath. Deidara had spent the last two months cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, but in the process, many things had been moved from their rightful places. The other day, Deidara had lost a shoe, and Sasori had found it in the refrigerator. Sasori can't understand Deidara's knack for misplacing things almost as much as he can't understand Dei's love of cleanliness.

After searching for some time, his hand hits the coffee pot. With his mind a sleepy blank, he makes himself a cup of coffee. As he pours the coffee into a mug, he notices he made too much. "I must be getting used to the Brat." he thinks, as he pours the extra coffee down the drain. He sits down at the table and drinks his coffee slowly.

Half an hour later, he is working on the blonde, male puppet he had abandoned two months ago. He carefully carves away at the puppet's face, slowly making it more life-like. His thoughts slowly drift away to his roommate. He wonders how Deidara is doing. Has he raced yet? Did he win? Sasori starts to wish he had gone with Deidara.

He pulls out of his thoughts for a minute to look at the face he has been carving. He blows away the shavings and scrutinizes it. He gives a loud gasp and stands up. He frowns. "No way. It must be a trick of the candlelight.", he says to the empty apartment. His voice sounds horribly loud in the lonely emptiness. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and looks at the head again to make sure his eyes weren't tricking him.

Sure enough, the face smiling up at him from the table looks scarily like Deidara's face.

The first thing that rushes through Sasori is panic. He has to hide this. What if Deidara were to come in at that moment and notice his own head sitting on the table? Sasori pulls off his robe and drops it over the puppet's head. He plunks a newspaper and Deidara's magazine on top of his robe.

The magazine slides off and falls on floor.

Sasori reaches down to pick up, and then it hits him how stupidly he is acting. Holding the magazine in both hands, he calms himself quickly. He puts the magazine down, puts the newspaper on top of it, pulls his robe back on, sits down, and stares at the head. "Serves me right for thinking when I should be working.", he thinks. "Now what do I do?"

The head in front of him is perfectly proportioned and as life-like as it could possibly look with ought being painted. It is such a wonderful work of art that Sasori doesn't feel like changing it, but it looks too much like Deidara for his comfort.

Sasori sighs despondently. This is the second time something like this has happened to him.

The first time, he had just moved into the apartment, and unconsciously, had ended up carving himself into a puppet. He kept this puppet-Sasori in a box in the storeroom and never used it in his shows. He never even greased it anymore. He was too afraid of someone seeing it and recognizing him in the puppet.

Well, it looked like his puppet-self was going to have company now. He cannot bring himself to spoil the puppet-Deidara, so he continues working on it for a while. He leaves the head, and shapes the body more like Deidara's. He works cautiously, ready to grab the puppet's pieces and run to the storeroom upon hearing the slightest noise.

After another few hours of work, he feels hungry.

He carries the pieces of the Dei-puppet to the storeroom, where he puts them in an empty box. He makes himself a tuna sandwich and eats it, looking at the clock.

The clock points out 12:08 PM. Midday.

Sasori chews thoughtfully on his sandwich. Deidara's race is probably over by now. He wonders how it went. Then a wild notion enters his head. What if Deidara's race isn't over yet? What if he goes to the pool and watches? It seems like a good idea to him.

In an uncommon burst of energy, he runs to the bedroom, pulls an old blue jacket on, covers his red hair with its hood and jams an ancient pair of sunglasses over his eyes. Deciding that Deidara will never recognize him in his new outfit, Sasori sprints out of the apartment, pausing only to grab his camera from a shelf on the wall, thunders down the steps, narrowly avoids getting run over as he crosses the street and waits impatiently at the bus stop with seven other people for a few minutes. He is the first person on the bus, and he stands next to the door, ready to jump off as soon as the bus reaches the right stop.

By the time the bus reaches the stop, most of his energy has left him. He feels oddly nervous. He steps cautiously off the bus and peers self-consciously over the top of his sunglasses. The hood of his jacket is uncomfortable, and he pulls it down absentmindedly.

He sees the big building that houses the Pool off to his right. He walks towards it. He hands the three-dollar admission fee to a man standing by the gate, and enters. He makes his way up into the stands and sits down in the first empty seat he finds.

He has a good view of the pool from his seat. He sees Deidara in the water, talking to a redheaded teenager. His hopes leap, and he pulls out his camera and shoots a picture. As he winds the film, he asks the person sitting next to him, a punky young lady with four small, spiky, blonde ponytails, if the race has begun yet.

She answers him with a proud smile. "It's going to begin in two minutes. That's my brother down there, you know."

Sasori frowns. "Deidara's your brother?", he asks her.

"No.", she says indignantly. "I'm Gaara's big sister. He is so going to win!"

Sasori nods in agreement. "Yes, he probably will win.", he says, feeling like a traitor.

His face must have shown how he was feeling, because Gaara's sister asks him, "Are you alright?", in a worried voice. Sasori is wondering what to answer when her eyes widen and she leans forward in her seat, exclaiming, "Ohmygosh, the race is going to start!"

Sure enough, Deidara and Gaara are standing in the water, ready to start swimming. A brown-haired kid was standing near the lifeguard's seat, holding a whistle. "On your mark, ready, get set..", he shouted. Then he blew his whistle and shouted "GO!!!"

-----

Down in the water, Deidara is brimming with self-confidence.

When the boy shouts Go, he bares his teeth in a savage grin and pushes off the wall.

This is a mistake.

He gets a mouthful of water as the force of his pullout throws him forwards. He swallows the water, surfaces quickly, breathes, and continues swimming. The redheaded teenager is ahead, but Deidara puts on a burst of speed and catches up.

They race together, neck-to-neck. Deidara frowns in the water. This boy is good, he thinks. Very good.

They reach the other side of the pool, flip, and start swimming back towards where they started. They slice through the water like twin sharks, unable to pass one another.

They are just about reaching the end when Deidara suddenly finds some extra energy he didn't know he had. He shoots ahead and tags the wall a whole second ahead of his opponent.

His face flushed by the rush of energy, he clambers out of the pool rapidly and stands there dripping, grinning at the people in the stands. He raises both his arms with pride and shouts out, "Victory, un!"

The multitudes of people in the stands stare at him, shocked for a second. Then they cascade down the stands and cluster around him, yelling congratulations, shaking his hands, thumping him on the back, hugging him, and even kissing him.

He feels slightly dazed, and all he can do is smile and thank people.

Then, looking through the crowd, he catches sight of a redheaded man marching towards the exit. A redheaded man whom he recognizes instantly. Surprise and happiness well up inside him. He waves his arms and calls out, "Sasori no Danna? Hey, I'm over here!"

But the red headed man pulls the hood of his jacket over his head and strides out. The happiness and surprise he had felt drain away, leaving him feeling slightly empty. "Probably some relation of Gaara's.", he thinks.

He starts pushing his way out of the crowd towards the locker room. He enters the locker room and some of the men from the crowd follow him in, chatting amiably.

Deidara doesn't really listen. He can't remember where he left his stuff. He walks through the aisles of lockers, lost. He is just about to give up and go home anyway, when he hears a voice.

"Your stuff is over here."

He looks to his right and sees Gaara sitting dejectedly on a bench in front of a row of lockers, pointing at a locker. He recognizes the locker. "Thanks, un." he says curtly. He walks to the locker, opens it, pulls out his towel, and starts to dry up.

Gaara watches warily him for a minute. Then he bursts out, "How could you beat me?"

A smile hovers on Deidara's face. "Experience, un." he answers. "I've been swimming since I was really small, I'm bigger and stronger than you, and I've been in more races than I can count. You're still a little boy."

"Little?" scoffs Gaara. He gets up and storms away, looking like he might hit someone.

Deidara shrugs and pulls on his atrocious t-shirt.

As soon as he gets out of the locker room, three hungry-looking females corner him.

"Hey! We watched your race and we've decided you are sooooo cool!" gushes one of them. She winds her arms around his neck and the other two grab his arms.

"Will you come to Burger King with us?" whines the girl hanging possessively from his right arm. "It'll be sooooo much fun!" squeals the one strangling his left arm.

Deidara carefully extracts himself from the predatory females. "Er, no thanks, ladies." he says awkwardly. "I've got to get home, un." He starts to walk away, but the first girl grabs the back of his t-shirt. He rapidly suppresses a swearword.

She walks up close behind him and whispers seductively in his ear. "Do come with us. We want you to come with us."

"No.", he says stubbornly.

She sighs, and seems to give up on him. She lets go of the back of his shirt. "At least tell me where you work." she says.

"He works at the Akatsuki Theater.", says one of the other girls. "He's the one who does the fireworks."

The first girl's lipsticked mouth opens in surprise. "Fireworks? Do tell." But Deidara backs away. "Maybe some other time."

He turns on his heels and runs as fast as he can to the exit, the girls' giggles following after him.

-----

A few minutes later, Deidara gets off the bus at the theater bus stop. He walks silently up the steps to the apartment.

As he passes Hidan's apartment, Hidan walks out carrying a bag of garbage. He greets Deidara in the most friendly way he knows. "How's it going, Bastard?", he asks, releasing his left hand from the bag and clouting Deidara over the head with it.

"Ow." Deidara rubs his head. It hurts a bit, but Deidara doesn't mind. He smiles at Hidan.

He and Hidan had developed a pretty good friendship over the last few months. All Deidara had to do was carry a few spare band-aids with him every time he hung out with Hidan and ignore his friend's constant stream of swearwords. Hidan, on the other hand, completely enjoyed Deidara's company. Deidara was just about the only person who actually liked him. His roommate, Kakuzu, was always putting him down and disagreeing with him. He and Deidara felt they had a lot in common.

He points at Deidara's lurid t-shirt. 'What's with the shirt, asshole?"

Deidara becomes suddenly defensive. "What's wrong with my t-shirt, un?"

Hidan surveys it speculatively. "It makes you look gay.", he answers.

Deidara makes a mental note not to wear that t-shirt anytime soon, and pretends to shake off the insult. "Thanks a lot, baka. Anyway, I've got to get back to my place, Sasori's expecting me.", he says to Hidan.

"And I've got to get rid of this crap.", says Hidan, eyeing his bag of garbage. He starts walking down the stairs. "Seeya later, sucker.", he shouts over his shoulder.

"Bye, Hidan!", calls Deidara before starting up the stairs. He gives a knock on the door to the apartment to warn Sasori that he's coming in.

He hears a loud shuffling inside, and enters cautiously. Sasori is nowhere in sight, and his tools are strewn over the table messily. Deidara frowns. Sasori never leaves his stuff around like that. "Sasori?", he calls. "Are you in?" He hears a door open and close loudly and Sasori half runs, half stumbles into the living room.

"Hi, Brat.", says Sasori with a forced looking smile. "How'd the race go?", he asks.

Deidara shrugs uncomfortably. "Okay, I guess. I won." He trails off to the bedroom.

Sasori watches him go with a frown. Deidara's acting oddly, he thinks. "Are you ok, Brat?" he asks.

Deidara turns around with one hand on the doorknob. "Why shouldn't I be ok, un?" he asks loudly.

Sasori snorts. "Maybe because you're not bouncing with energy, bragging your head off, and basically being a pain in the neck?", he answers.

Deidara glares at him, wrenches open the door, and slams it behind him.

Sasori shakes his head in wonderment, and walks off to the kitchen. "Deidara is so strange sometimes.", he says to himself. "Anyone would think I had insulted him."

-----

Deidara sits down on his small camp bed. He pulls off his t-shirt and looks at it carefully. He doesn't see anything particularly wrong with it. He drops it on the floor, and lays down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Why do I feel so weird?", he wonders.

He closes his eyes and tries to focus. He frowns with concentration. Slowly, he realizes what is wrong with him. He opens his eyes. "I was so sure that red-headed guy at the pool was Danna.", he whispers. "I guess I really wanted someone who I know to watch my race. If Sis were still alive, she would have come with me, un." Deidara sighs.

He misses his twin sister very much. She had died two years before in a car accident. Deidara had been so distraught, that he had given up driving forever. For a time, he had given up taking care of himself too, but eventually he had perked up once more and pursued his art with renewed vigor.

"But why do I feel so weird now?", he asks himself. "Did I really want Danna to come that badly?"

Then anger flares up in him, new and hot. "Why should I want Danna to come with me?", he thinks angrily.

He swings himself off the bed and paces around the room unconsciously. "He's always so caustic and cold with me, un! I try to be nice to him, even if he does have weird ideas about art, but he doesn't care a smidgen about how I feel. I've forgiven him at least a million times. Why do I forgive him? He calls me Brat, for Heaven's sake, un! I'm twenty-one years old! I'm no Brat!"

He continues his pacing, mentally abusing his roommate. He is so wrapped up in his thoughts that he fails to hear a soft knock on the door.

Sasori opens the door and slips into the room, only to have his face slapped hard by a red-faced and angry Deidara. He drops the sandwich he was holding in surprise, and spills most of a glass of orange juice on his shirt. "What the hell, Deidara?", he exclaims as he backs towards the door.

"What've you come to insult me about now, un?", says Deidara through gritted teeth. "What have I done wrong this time, huh? That's all you ever do, complain, complain, complain! Here I am, minding my own business, and in you come, scolding me about something as if you were my mother, un! What's worse, you bring yourself a sandwich, and of course you don't even think of bringing me one."

Sasori, with his back pressed against the door, interrupts Deidara quietly, saying, "Excuse me, Deidara, but that sandwich was for you."

Deidara feels completely gobsmacked. He feels sure that he misheard what Sasori had just said. "SSay what, un?", he stutters.

Sasori shrugs stiffly. "Well, you've just swum a race and used up a lot of energy, so I figured you might be hungry."

Deidara looks at the floor for a minute, feeling stupid. Then he looks up at Sasori and says, "Thanks, I guess." Then he bursts out, "Why'd you even bother to wonder if I was hungry or not and make a sandwich for me? You've never really done that before, un." S

asori shifts uncomfortably, looks at his feet, and tries to think up an excuse for his odd behavior. "Well, er I made sandwiches before I left... um... before you arrivedand, uh, I had a leftover, so I decided to give it to you, you know maybe it wouldpoison you or or something" His voice trails off, and he looks up at Deidara to see his reaction.

Deidara is standing with his arms crossed, his right foot tapping against the floor, and a look of utter disbelief on his face. "You expect me to believe THAT?", he exclaims. "Do you think I'm stupid, or something?"

Sasori winces and starts to think up a better excuse, but Deidara sees the expression on his face and interrupts his thoughts. "No, don't answer that. Just tell me the truth already. I can see you're thinking up some other dumb excuse, your face tells it all. You really suck at lying, un."

But Sasori has finally found a good excuse. He lets his face relax back into its usual vague expression and starts lying as best as he can. "Actually, I guess I kind of wanted to apologize to you. I thought a bit , and I guess I do treat you badly.", he says with a smooth, calm voice. He smiles a small, mocking smile. "Maybe I am the real Brat, Deidara."

"No, I'm the Brat, un!", says Deidara enthusiastically. He completely believes Sasori's excuse, and forgives him. He stands next to Sasori and leans against the door too, throwing an arm around his roommate's shoulders cheerfully.

Sasori's body stiffens. He's never had anyone be this friendly to him before. It feels oddly nice.

Confirming the thoughts rushing through Sasori's surprised mind, Deidara smiles at him and says in a friendly voice, "Friends, Danna?"

Sasori nods. When he speaks, he is surprised at how husky his voice sounds. "Yes. We're friends now, Brat. By the way, congratulations on winning that race of yours."

Deidara's smile increases to a grin. "Thanks, un." he says softly. He reaches out with his other hand and pulls Sasori's arm up.

Sasori looks at Deidara, surprised. Dei grins innocently at him. Sasori's eyes soften, withought him noticing. He lets Deidara pull his arm around his shoulders. He feels warm inside. He had forgotten what it felt like to have a friend. He hasn't had a friend for so longtoo long

He starts feeling bad for lying to Deidara, and resolves to treat Deidara better in the future, even though he's not entirely sure what he did to deserve Deidara's anger in the first place.

They stand there together with their backs pressed against the door, staring out of the window in silence.

Friends.


	4. Chapter 3

October: Scream

"Halloween? What's that, un? I don't get it, Danna."

Deidara sits in his rickety armchair staring confusedly at Sasori who is sitting on the floor, looking annoyed.

Sasori sighs. "We've been through this a million times already, Brat.", he says. "At six-o-clock, we go down to Hidan's place and hand out candy to kids dressed up in weird costumes. I don't see what's so hard to understand about this."

Deidara is still confused. "Why would anyone do anything so stupid, un?" he asks.

Sasori stands up. "I don't know why, ok? It's just the kind of thing little kids do."

Deidara stands up too. "Ok, I think I get that part, but why do we have to wear these dorky costumes too, un?" He plucks at the black cloak with red clouds that he is wearing.

"Good question." says Sasori. He walks off to the kitchen. "I'm gonna make some sandwiches.", he yells over his shoulder.

"Oh, no!" exclaims Deidara. He follows Sasori, complaining loudly. "How come when you're depressed or bored you always make sandwiches? I'm tired of eating leftover sandwiches! Can't you get a better hobby, un?"

"Sandwiches are sexy.", says Sasori with his head in the refrigerator.

Deidara snorts with laughter. "So you're a sandwich fetishist, who has an unhealthy obsession with puppets, dirt, and neatness, un? Wow, and I thought I was weird!"

"Yeah, you're only a rabid transvestite with a passion for fireworks, cleanliness, and swimming. How normal.", taunts Sasori, upset.

Deidara's jaw falls wide open, his joking face replaced with an incredulous frown. He grabs Sasori's shoulder. "You really think I'm a girly-man?", he exclaims angrily.

Sasori shrugs off Deidara's hand and starts putting together his sandwich.

"Answer that, un!", shouts Deidara. S

asori exhales and looks at him. He scrutinizes him from head to toe. He turns back to his sandwiches, answering, "Not really. You're just pretty and long-haired."

Deidara looks as if he is about to burst with fury. "Pretty?", he growls. He crosses his arms and stomps angrily out of the kitchen.

Sasori sighs. He leaves his sandwich with its guts out, and walks rapidly after Deidara. He grabs the back of his roommate's cloak.

Deidara scowls at him sullenly over his shoulder. "Let go of my costume right now, un!", he shouts in Sasori's face.

"Don't run away then.", says Sasori, letting go of the back of Deidara's costume.

Deidara turns around and stares at him right in the face. "Ok, what do you want, un?", he asks sulkily.

He is standing so close to Sasori that Sasori can feel Deidara's warm, angry breath on his face. He takes a step back and asks, "What's wrong with me calling you pretty, Deidara? As far as I know, that's a compliment."

Deidara crosses his arms and turns his head huffily towards the wall, away from Sasori. "Girls are pretty, un. Guys are handsome. You're calling me a girl, un!"

Sasori sakes his head pleadingly. "Come on, Deidara. I already told you that you don't look like a girl. I didn't really mean pretty anyway. I meant... gracefull, or something. There, I've apologized. What else do you want?", he says.

Deidara looks back at Sasori, wondering how to answer that question. An idea hits him. He smiles a small smile and answers Sasori's question. "A better costume, un." He roars with laughter at his own bad joke.

His laughter is loud and infectious. Sasori finds himself laughing, too. They stand together, laughing heartily for several minutes.

Finally Sasori, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, chokes out, "We must be so messed up."

"What do you mean, un?", asks Deidara, doubled up with laughter. "One minute ago, you were bitching about because you thought I called you a girl, and now we're nearly dying of laughter.", explains Sasori, grinning.

Deidara looks up, smiling and sees Sasori's wild grin. His eyes widen in surprise.

Sasori notices Deidara's surprise. His grin slides back to his usual vague expression. He opens his mouth to ask Deidara what's the matter, but Deidara interrupts him.

"Holy crap, Danna, I didn't know you could grin!", he yells. "I like your grin. Do it again, un!"

Sasori frowns. "Huh?", he asks.

"No, that's wrong.", says Deidara, waggling a finger. He bares his teeth at Sasori in a bad imitation of the wild grin that had been on his roommate's face a minute ago. "Like thish, un.", he says through gritted teeth.

Sasori smiles wryly.

Deidara stops grinning and shakes his head. "You just don't get it, un!", he says sadly. Then, suddenly, he reaches out and pulls the corners of Sasori's mouth upwards with his fingers. "Much better!", he laughs.

"What are you doing, Brat?!?", exclaims Sasori angrily, pushing Deidara off.

Still, Deidara tries to make him smile. He tickles Sasori. Against his will, Sasori finds himself laughing.

Deidara chuckles and tickles him even more.

Tears squeeze their way out of Sasori's eyes. He tries to stop Deidara and succeeds in grabbing his wrists and pinning him to the wall.

Deidara grins at him, pressed up against the wall. "So you're ticklish, un?", he teases. "What a funny Danna you are, Sasori."

Sasori looks back at him, his eyes shining, still shivery from laughter. "And you're a funny Brat, Deidara.", he says, his voice husky. They look at each other, surrounded by a thick, warm silence that renders them suddenly speechless. They stare deep into one another's eyes. The world stands still. They are the only living, breathing things on the surface of the earth. They are Sasori and Deidara, and no-body else. Just themselves. Together. Having fun.

Then, cutting through the warm silence like an unfriendly knife, Sasori's watch starts beeping.

Sasori lets go quickly of Deidara's wrists and looks at the watch. "Six-o-clock.", he says in his usual quiet, cool voice. "We should go."

Deidara nods in agreement. The warmth of a few seconds ago still surrounds him like a blanket, and he doesn't know what to say. He follows his roommate dumbly out of the room, his face flushed. "I really am messed up.", he thinks, touching his warm face. "This is embarrassing, un."

By the time they get to Hidan's apartment, Deidara's reddened face is nearly back to normal. He is smiling again, nervously. He looks uncertainly at the glowing pumpkin outside the door that provides the only light in the dark corridor and the black piece of material hanging in loose folds over the door. The turnout looks oddly ominous. He tugs Sasori's sleeve before he can knock on the door. "Danna?" he says.

"Mm?" Sasori turns around and looks at Deidara curiously.

Deidara feels embarrassed and ignorant. "What's with the disturbing pumpkin, un? It's seriously weird."

Sasori shrugs. "Pumpkins are a symbol of Halloween. I don't know why." Then, before Deidara can say anything else, he whirls around and knocks two sharp raps on the door.

"Who's there?" calls Hidan's loud voice. "Sasori and Deidara." says Sasori, loudly.

"Well, come in then, bastards!"

Sasori pushes the door open.

Suddenly, light floods into the hallway, blinding him and Deidara. Both of their hands shoot up to their eyes.

Sasori vigorously rubs his eyes.

Deidara shakes his head hard, his hair whipping around his neck.

When they both open their eyes, blinking and squinting, and walk into the brightly lit room, the other occupants of the building greet them.

Kakuzu and Zetsu are sitting on a couch together talking. Hidan, Kisame, and Itachi are sitting on the floor together. Hidan and Kisame look quite put out. Itachi, on the other hand is smiling superiorly, shuffling a deck of cards.

Hidan waves at Deidara. "Hey, Dei! 'Sup, mofo?"

Deidara shrugs happily and drops down next to Hidan. "Nothing'." he answers. "And you, un?"

Hidan sighs. "I just got my ass whipped at Spit by Itachi."

Deidara's eyes light up. "Spit?" he says. "That's my favorite card game!" He grins at Itachi. "Bet I can beat you." he teases.

Itachi raises his eyebrows cynically. "Don't make bets you can't win." he says.

Deidara gets up again and sits down in front of him, snatches the cars and starts shuffling them slowly. "C'mon, let's play, un."

Itachi shakes his head. "I don't want to play against you. It would be too easy." he says.

"Hey."

Deidara hears someone behind him. He looks up to see who is talking, and finds himself looking up at Sasori.

"I'll play." says Sasori, smiling crookedly.

Itachi's eyes widen. Then he smirks at Sasori. "You're on.", he says.

Sasori nods, and nudges Deidara with his foot. "Move, Brat." he says coolly.

Deidara glares at Sasori, but slides back next to Hidan.

Sasori sits down in front of Itachi, picks up the deck of cards, shuffles them expertly, divides the pack in half, and hands a half to Itachi. They quickly lay out their cards in the appropriate piles. He and Itachi yell "Spit!" and start playing quickly.

Tense silence fills the room, as everyone watches them play.

Deidara watches the cards flowing through the two players' hands and feels awed. "Am I missing something here, un?" he whispers to Hidan.

Hidan leans over to whisper in his ear. "Sasori's the only bastard who could ever beat Itachi at spit. It's always a mean game when they challenge each other, but they haven't played together since last Halloween, so I guess they could be a bit out of practice, ya know." He sits up straight. "I bet Sasori wins the damn game." he says loudly.

Deidara looks speculatively at the growing piles of cards lying in front of Sasori and Itachi. "I'll take that bet, un." he says.

Hidan frowns. "Huh?" Then the meaning of Deidara's words hits him. "So you really want to make a bet, huh? Okay, loser hands the candy out to the first group of damn midgets. Which bastard do you bet on?"

Deidara scrutinizes Sasori and Itachi's growing piles of cards. Although it's hard to tell, Itachi seems to be doing better than Sasori. Deidara folds his arms smugly. "Itachi is going to win. I bet on him, un."

Hidan looks at Deidara cynically. "The darn game's only just beginning. I wouldn't bet on Itachi so soon." he says.

Deidara laughs uncertainly. "Oh, come on, Hidan." he says. "If I betted for Danna too, this bet would be stupid. Stop complaining and shut up, un."

Hidan nods in agreement, spits on his hand and extends it towards Deidara.

Deidara wrinkles his nose. "Hidan, what have I told you about spitting?" he says disgustedly.

Hidan slaps himself on the forehead with his spitty hand. "Sorry. My shitty bad." he apologizes. He wipes his hand on his cloak, ignoring the wet patch on his forehead. He extends his hand towards Deidara again. "Shake.", he prompts.

Deidara, with a face of utter suffering, shakes Hidan's carefully, trying to reduce contact between their hands. When Hidan releases his hand, he winces and wipes his hand on the nearest thing, which just happens to be Kisame's trailing sleeve.

Kisame looks at him, and sneers, "What does the little girlie want then?" Their relationship had not improved over the last six months. If anything, it had seriously worsened.

Deidara glares daggers at Kisame. "The little girlie wants nothing from the fat old fish, thank you." he says pointedly. Kisame looks like he is about to burst, but he looks away from Deidara.

Spit is a quick game. In a few minutes, Sasori sits up straight, his arms crossed, a smug smile on his face. "I win.", he says quietly.

Itachi looks up from his piles of cards, his face unreadable. "Well done, Sasori.", he says, and starts tidying up the cards.

Sasori helps him in silence. He hands the cards back to Itachi, and stands up. "I'm going to get a drink.", he announces. "Does anyone else want something?"

Kakuzu and Zetsu ignore Sasori and continue talking.

Hidan and Kisame shake their heads.

Deidara shrugs. "Not really.", he says.

Sasori gives a small nod and walks off toward Hidan and Kakuzu's kitchen.

A loud knock sounds at the door. Hidan smiles evilly at Deidara. "Candy time, asshole.", he teased.

Deidara frowns. "Huh?"

Hidan shoves a big bowl of candy into Deidara's arms. "You open the door and give some candy to the darn kid out there.", he explains.

"Why would I do that?", asks Deidara, completely confused.

"You lost your bet. Now get out there.", says Hidan, pushing Deidara towards the door.

The knocking sounds out again, even louder.

"Go on, before it breaks down the door.", encourages Hidan.

Deidara gulps. He walks cautiously to the door and opens it a crack. He looks at Hidan for help. "Hidan, can't you…", he says, but Hidan crosses his arms and turns away. Deidara sighs and pulls open the door.

Outside, stands a miniature Leatherface brandishing an ugly-looking chainsaw and a plastic pumpkin.

Deidara freezes.

The minute criminal extends the plastic pumpkin towards Deidara, cackling, "Trick or treat?"

Deidara gives a loud yell that echoes through the dark hall. "HERE, HAVE IT ALL, UN!"

He dumps the huge bowl of candy at the child's feet and rushes into the apartment, slamming the door behind himself.

He runs forwards blindly in fear and hits something hard. Some kind of liquid spills down the front of his cloak, but he doesn't stop to think about that. He throws his arms around the warm, hard something and clings to it like a drowning child. "HELP! There's a miniature serial killer out there, un! Someone call the police!" he screams with panic.

"Calm down, Brat. You're safe.", says the something. Its calm, quiet voice dispels Deidara's fear. He opens his eyes, which he had inadvertently shut, and looks up warily at the something. His body stiffens with shock. "D…Danna?", he stammers.

-----

Outside the closed door, under his mask, the kid looks surprised. Then his face dissolves into a huge smile. He picks up the bowl, and grins at its contents. "Good pickings.", he comments to himself. He pours it all away into his pumpkin.

A big boy dressed up like a fox walks up. "Hurry up, Konohamaru. We only have an hour left before I've got to get you home." He peers over the little boy's shoulder and gasps. "Whoa, how did you get all that candy?"

Konohamaru turns his childish grin on the fox-boy. "Naruto-niichan, you'll never ever guess what just happened."

-----

Inside the apartment, Dei feels utterly shocked and embarrassed. He is…hugging…his Danna in front of his colleagues. How appalling! He quickly lets go of his roommate and steps back, his face flooding with a deep red blush that reaches the roots of his hair.

Sasori just stands there, staring at him, holding a coffee cup whose contents were now staining both his and Deidara's cloaks, the slightest hint of red lingering on his pale cheeks. He and Deidara stare at each other in silence, not knowing what to say.

Then Kisame bursts out laughing. "Pity Deidara's not a girl, huh?", he remarks loudly to Itachi. "He and Sasori would make a cute couple." His eyes narrow maliciously. "Or maybe they're faggots!", he whispers audibly.

Deidara freezes. His eyes widen. His heart stops. Then, it starts up again, fast and angry. His wide eyes narrow furiously. His hand forms a fist and he sinks it into Kisame's gut with angry strength. Kisame rolls over with pain. His mind crazed by a rush of adrenaline, Dei pummels Kisame like a punching bag. Kisame starts screaming. Deidara's knuckles hurt, but he can't stop. It feels so GOOD to punch Kisame after putting up with his insults for so long… then suddenly he finds himself pinned with his back to the wall by Sasori for the second time that day, only this time it's not comfortable. Sasori is shouting at him, but Deidara doesn't listen. He tries to twist out of Sasori's iron grip, but he can't. He resorts to kicking Sasori's legs and screaming abuse. Sasori shouts something over his shoulder. Hidan grabs Deidara's legs and holds them still. Sasori claps a hand over Deidara's mouth to muffle the screams. Deidara finds himself immobile.

Trapped this way, he slowly calms down. The adrenaline drains out of his brain, leaving his head clear and horrified. He feels limp from waste of energy.

Seeing the change in Deidara, Sasori takes his hand warily of his roommate's mouth. "If I let go of you now, will you kill Kisame?", he whispers.

Deidara shakes his head. "Is that a yes or a no?", demands Sasori.

Deidara gives a little cough and says, "No, un."

Sasori says, "All right then.", and he releases Deidara's arms slowly. Hidan lets go of Deidara's legs.

Deidara slides to the ground where he sits leaning against the wall and staring up at the ceiling.

Sasori and Hidan look at each other. "Leave him there, he'll be fine in a couple of minutes.", says Sasori. Hidan looks at Deidara dubiously, but he nods and walks off.

Sasori stays for another moment before leaving Deidara sitting alone. He and Hidan join the small back and red cloud gathered around Kisame, who was howling, "Oh, I'm hurt! I'm hurt! My legs are broken! My nose is broken! My head's been ripped off! I'm dying!"

Itachi's ice-cold voice cuts through Kisame's screams. "He's over-reacting. There's nothing wrong with him, except a bunch of nasty bruises, but I'm going to take him back to the apartment to calm down."

Everyone steps back, and Itachi hauls Kisame upright. He drags Kisame, who is sniveling loudly, out of the apartment. The door shuts behind them.

Silence floods the room. Everyone looks at Deidara. Deidara shifts his gaze from the ceiling to meet their eyes. Hidan walks over, and starts pulling him upright in the same way Itachi had pulled Kisame a few minutes ago. Deidara lets himself be pulled.

Once Deidara is upright, Hidan releases his arm. "You ok, asshole?", he asks.

"Yeah, un.", answers Deidara.

"That's good.", says Hidan. Then he turns around to face the rest of the company. "Well, I don't see what all you bastards are staring at!", he yells at them angrily. "Get back to whatever shit you were doing!"

Zetsu and Kakuzu plop down onto the couch. Sasori pulls off his stained cloak and sits down with them. Hidan sits on the floor again and shuffles the deck of cards Itachi had left behind. He looks up deviously at Deidara, who is still standing. "I challenge you.", he says.

Deidara smiles a bit and sits down in front of Hidan. "Spit, un?", he asks. Hidan nods. "Loser gives candy to the next batch of midgets."

Deidara's scream echoes through the whole apartment building. "I'M NOT FALLING FOR THAT ONE AGAIN, UN!!!"  
----------------------------------------------------------


	5. Chapter 4

December: Illness

Sasori had been under the weather for a few days.

That night they had gotten back to the apartment after the night's show, and Sasori had laid down on his bed and refused to get up. Deidara had made dinner and tried to make him eat, but he had pushed away the food saying, "I'm not hungry, Brat."

That was about the time his fever had started.

--------

"Stop worrying, Deidara. I'm fine.", says Sasori numbly.

He is lying on his bed with his eyes closed. Beads of are sweat dancing on his forehead, but though he is sweating, he feels like he is freezing.

Deidara looks at his pale, flushed face with concern. "You're not fine, Danna.", he says, worried. He reaches down and places his hand on Sasori's sweaty forehead. He removes it after a few minutes. "Danna, you have a bad fever.", he says softly. "Please let me take your temperature, un."

Sasori's eyes fly open. "No!", he exclaims over loudly. "I'm fine, go away Brat!"

Deidara shakes his head and sits down on Sasori's bed. He puts his hand on Sasori's forehead again. Sasori is burning up. Deidara feels panicked. He doesn't know what to do.

-----

An hour later, Deidara's watch reads 3:00AM.

Deidara doesn't feel tired, just worried. Sasori seems to have gone to sleep and he is shivering violently. Deidara feels his forehead again. His fever has increased even more.

Sasori's eyes open a bit. "Mom?" he whispers in a cracked voice.

Deidara's eyes widen. He gets up. "I don't care what Danna says," says Deidara to himself. "I have to check his temperature properly, un!" He stands up and walks out of the door of the bedroom to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Deidara opens the mirrored medicine cabinet over the sink. He pushes various bottles aside before finding the thermometer. He looks at it, dismayed. "A glass thermometer, un," he says softly. "How do I use this?"

Deidara had only ever used a digital thermometer before. He's not sure what to do with this one.

He walks back to the bedroom holding the old-fashioned medical instrument delicately. He sits down next to Sasori again and sticks it in his mouth the way he had seen people do in old movies. The thermometer falls out. Deidara frowns. He tries to pull open Sasori's mouth. Sasori's mouth falls open easily. Deidara sticks it in.

Ten minutes later, he pulls out the thermometer and stares at the silver-looking liquid on the inside. The mercury hasn't risen at all. He doesn't believe what he's seeing. "The thermometer must be broken, un," he murmurs. Then he looks at the thermometer again more carefully, and suddenly he realizes what he has done wrong.

He slaps himself, a habit of Hidan's he had picked up in the last four months, and sticks the thermometer in Sasori's mouth again, this time the right way around. "I'm so stupid," he whispers.

He only waits five minutes this squints at the thin line of mercury inside the glass instrument. "103 Fahrenheit, 39.4 Celsius." he mutters. "That sounds…pretty high, un." He takes the thermometer back to the bathroom. Then he stares at himself in the mirror. "Let's face it, un," he whispers to his reflection. "I don't know anything about medical stuff."

As a kid, Deidara had always been very healthy. When everyone else in his class had been coughing, fainting, vomiting or scratching spots, Deidara had always been bright and merry. The last time he had caught a fever, he had been six years old, and he can't really remember anything about it.

He walks out to the living room and picks up the cell phone Sasori had left there. "I guess I should call the doctor," he murmurs. He carefully punches in the doctor's number from a sheet of paper stuck on the refrigerator, and then he waits. Hours seem to go by as the phone rings unanswered. Then, just as he is about to give up, a sleepy voice answers the phone.

"He...Hello?" comes the voice, slurred with sleep. "Whozit?"

"Hello? Is this Dr. Kabuto Yakushi, un?" asks Deidara, reading the doctor's name off the paper.

The doctor yawns and seems to wake up a bit more. "Yes, this is he. What do you want?" he says slowly.

"Um…" says Deidara, not sure what to say. "Er… sorry for calling so late, un, but my pal's really sick and I'm not sure what to do 'cause I don't know anything about medicine and stuff and he feels like he's burning up…"

Here the doctor interrupts. "Bring him over tomorrow at eight-o-clock. Goodnight." he says and starts to put the phone down.

"No, wait!" shouts Deidara, panicking. "He has a temperature of a 103 Fahrenheit!"

This seems to register in the doctor's sleepy brain. "Yes, that is pretty bad. Have you given him Tylenol, Panadol, Advil, or any other fever-reducer?" he asks Deidara.

"I don't even know what those are, un." Deidara admits.

Dr. Yakushi sighs morosely. "Fine. Bring him to my clinic, but this better not be some weird joke." He hangs up.

Deidara turns off the cell phone. He looks at the paper for the clinic's address, and notices it has a map and written instructions on it. He squints at the map and realizes, to his dismay, that the clinic is too far for him to carry Sasori there. He walks back to the bedroom sulkily and stares out of the window at the sidewalk below. "How am I going to get Danna to the clinic, un?" he asks himself. He is just about to call the doctor back and tell him not to bother, when he sees it.

The streetlight outside shines down on a shiny metal object: Itachi's car is parked right outside his window.

Deidara's eyes widen. A mischievous grin plays across his face. "Stay right here, Danna." he tells Sasori.

Sasori does not respond.

Deidara frowns. He doesn't want to leave Sasori alone in the apartment, but he rushes out anyway, resolving to be quick.

His plan is simple. Once on the landing outside the apartment, he creeps to Itachi and Kisame's apartment. He tries the doorknob carefully. The door springs open. It's unlocked! Deidara's grin widens. "That retarded fish must have forgotten to lock the door." he thinks.

He slips inside the dark apartment. The basic shape of the apartment is the same as his and Sasori's, but everything else is different. The floor has no carpet. The smooth wood feels cold against Deidara's bare feet. He looks around in awe. This is the first time he has ever been inside Itachi and Kisame's apartment. The apartment is dark, but Deidara can vaguely make out the book-cases lining the walls, the huge stuffed shark mounted over the door, the small table in the middle of the room, and the piles of newspapers lying around everywhere. He can smell the dust. It makes him feel like sneezing. He holds his nose and tiptoes to the table. Sure enough, Itachi's keys are laying there attached to a key ring that resembles a weasel.

Deidara picks up the keyring triumphantly. As he picks them up, the keys jangle loudly. He freezes as the sound echoes through the still apartment. He stands frozen for what seems like hours, his heart pounding, his body immobile.

Slowly, he regains ability to move. He carefully tiptoes out of Itachi and Kisame's apartment and into his own, closing the door softly behind him. He tucks the keys into his pocket and walks into the bedroom.

In there, he pulls Sasori's navy blue robe off the hook behind the door. He tiptoes up to Sasori's bed and sits on it, clutching the robe. "Sit up, Danna." he says quietly.

Sasori's eyes flicker open, and he licks his lips. "I'm thirsty." he whispers brokenly. "The sandwich is burning, Mom."

Deidara's eyes widen in shock. He purses his lips and frowns even more. Then he pulls Sasori till he's sitting upright. Sasori droops limply forwards like one of his own puppets.

Deidara gulps. He finds it very disturbing to see his Danna in this state. He stuffs Sasori's arms into the robe's arms. Then Dei stands up and tries to pull Sasori up too, but he can't. He manages to drag Sasori off the bed, but Sasori just hangs there loosely in his arms, his eyes only slightly open. Deidara somehow manages to pick up Sasori's legs, so he is carrying him sideways. "I guess I'll have to carry him to the car this way, un." he thinks, and he thanks his lucky stars that his Danna is small and light.

He walks out of the open bedroom door, down the short hall and through his living room. He stops for a minute to slip on a pair of sandals, and then he carries Sasori through the apartment door he had left open earlier. He shuts the door with one of his feet. It causes an echoing bang, but Deidara is too busy concentrating on not dropping Sasori, who is not as light as he initially thought. "Good thing I'm strong, un." he whispers to himself as he starts to walk down the steps.

-----

Sasori is not sure about anything.

Everything is confusing. Who is he? Where is he? His head feels like it's full of cotton. The only thing he is sure about is that someone is carrying him somewhere. He can feel the person's warm arms through the thick thing he seems to be wearing. He shivers inside his…cloak? No, it's more like a robe. At any rate, he feels horribly cold and small. He feels like he is trapped inside a freezer, and yet he is still sweating.

No, he mustn't think about that. He knows these thoughts will just make him feel worse. Instead, he concentrates on the person carrying him. He can't see the person well. Something seems to be clouding his vision. He squints. No, he can't tell who it is, but the person has a good feeling. He decides he likes the person. His arms feel weak and floppy, but he manages to wind them around the person's neck. This movement exhausts the last of his strength. He lets his head slump onto the person's warm, comfortable shoulder. He closes his eyes. Yes, he likes this person a lot. He falls asleep softly, in the person's warm arms.

-----

Deidara walks out of the back door to the apartment building. He shivers. It's freezing cold. He can see his own breath condensing in the air.

Sasori's shivers increase. Deidara unconsciously holds him tighter.

He walks over the frosted sidewalk towards Itachi's car. The frost crunches under his feet.

The moon shines bright from where it hangs low in the sky. Deidara looks up at it. He likes the moon. It's so pretty and silvery. He suddenly notices he is shivering too. He hopes fervently that Itachi's car has a good heater.

He arrives at the car. It is an old, slightly battered mini cooper. Deidara smiles a bit. It's just like his Uncle's old car, the car he learned to drive on. An old, cream-colored stick shift.

With difficulty, he manages to get the door open withought dropping Sasori. He slides into the front seat and carefully stuffs Sasori into the passenger's seat, unwinding his roommate's arms from around his neck. Sasori gives a little grunt of protest, but Deidara ignores it. He looks for the seat belts, but he doesn't find any. Oh, well. He takes hold of the steering wheel with one hand and prepares to insert the key into the ignition, but he finds his hand wavering.

A picture of his sister's face floats up into his mind. "Sis…" he finds himself whispering. He feels like a traitor, but he knows he HAS to get Sasori to the clinic as soon as possible.

He closes his eyes tight and jams the key forcefully into the ignition. The engine revs to life. Deidara opens his eyes slowly. He's done it. He's broken his promise. "Well, it was a stupid promise, un!" he thinks angrily as he releases the clutch and moves the car into first gear. As the car pulls slowly away, a tear trickles unbidden down his cheek. He wipes it away in annoyance, but another one swiftly follows. He lets this one fall as he presses the clutch, slips the car into second gear, and releases the clutch again. He drives off through the tangle of streets, following the map.

The lone car crunches over the frosty road, with only the moon watching its progress. And inside sits Deidara, mournful but triumphant, tears running down his cheeks as he grins crazily and slides the car into third gear. He had forgotten how free and good it felt to drive a car. Almost, but not quite, as good as he imagines flying would feel. Yes, his old promise was stupid. But he still misses his sister.

-----

Ten minutes later, the old car pulls up outside the clinic. It parks and turns off.

Deidara slips out of the car. He walks around to the other side of the car, opens the door, and picks up his sick friend again. Carrying Sasori in his arms, he pushes open the door to the doctor's clinic.

Inside it is warm. The doctor is reclining in a waiting-room chair, asleep. Deidara clears his throat loudly. The doctor wakes up and sits up rapidly, pushing his round glasses up on his face. He looks up sleepily at Deidara. His eyes widen upon seeing Sasori and he stands up rapidly. "Hmm, your friend is in a bad condition. Good thing you called me."

Deidara smiles crookedly. "Sorry for disturbing your sleep, un." he apologizes.

The doctor smiles amiably and shakes his head. "Don't be sorry. It's a good thing you brought him. He's a lucky man, to have such a caring friend."

Deidara smiles modestly and adjusts his grip on Sasori. He is starting to feel Sasori's weight very heavily.

Dr. Yakushi notices Deidara's discomfort. He walks off past the empty reception desk, beckoning Deidara to follow him. "Come on." he says. "I need to examine your friend before I can do anything." Deidara follows obligingly.

Inside the doctor's examination room, Deidara deposits Sasori on the examination table. He stands around helplessly while Dr. Yakushi makes himself busy examining Sasori. Deidara is bored by the doctor's actions and feels sleepy. He gives a big yawn. "I'm going out to the waiting room." he mutters, and he leaves the examination room.

He walks down a short hall, past the reception desk, and into the empty waiting room. He sits down in one of the comfortable chairs lining the wall. The waiting room is warm. The chair is soft. Deidara's blue eyes shut softly. A small snore slips out from his open mouth. Sasori is in good hands, so he can finally sleep.

-----

'Hey! Wake up!"

Deidara opens his eyes sleepily. "What?" he asks.

Dr. Yakushi is standing in front of him. For a moment Deidara can't remember who the pale, very-light haired man in front of him is. He squints around the waiting room and remembers where he is. He stands up unsteadily. "How is Sasori?" he asks the young doctor.

"His temperature was way too high, so I gave him an injection to bring it down. It seems like he contracted a common case of influenza, but his body reacted badly to it, so he has a very high fever. Keep him in bed for a few days and give him this medication if his fever returns," Dr. Yakushi pauses in his medical verdict to pass Deidara a small bottle of pills. "And be careful not to catch the flu yourself. I don't want any more late-night calls." he says, finalizing his speech with a smile.

Deidara thanks him gladly. He walks to the examination room with the doctor. After overhearing a few more instructions on how to take care of Sasori, he picks him  
up from the doctor's examination table and leaves, shouting "Goodnight, un!" over his shoulder. He gets into the car again and drives back to the apartment building.

He carefully parks the car outside the building, under the streetlight where it was before, sticks the keys in his pockets, and carries Sasori up to their apartment on the second floor. He pushes the door open with an elbow, nearly dropping Sasori. He crosses the threshold into his apartment. As he walks through his apartment to the bedroom, a wave of sleepiness washes over him. It feels good to be back.

He lays Sasori down gently on his bed. He covers him up with the bed sheets, not bothering to remove the robe he is wearing. Then he looks at his own little camp bed wistfully. He wants to lie down and go to sleep immediately, but there is something he has to do first. He shoots a quick glance at Sasori, and leaves the room. He creeps out through the door of the apartment, down the hall, and into Kisame and Itachi's apartment. He deposits the keys carefully on the table. He steps backwards, pleased, and…

Deidara trips over a pile of newspapers. He falls over backwards with a small yell and a loud thump. A light flicks on.

"Are you back, Kisame?" Itachi's voice comes floating into the room.

Deidara rapidly suppresses a swearword. He picks himself up quietly and slips out of the door, closing it tightly behind himself.

"Kisame?"

Deidara can still hear Itachi's voice. He runs over to the door of his apartment and frantically pulls on the doorknob, forgetting that the door opens inwards. He can hear Itachi's footsteps approaching the other door. "Shit!" he whispers, and looks around for some hiding place. Then he sees it. He sees the small broom closet near the stairs. He bolts to it, opens the door and squeezes himself inside.

It's dark and musty inside the closet. Facing the door, Deidara finds his back pressed against a row of shelves full of paint buckets, mops, and other things that he can't recognize. It kind of hurts. He tries to move into a more comfortable position, but all he succeeds in is bumping his head hard on the low roof of the closet. He stops moving when he hears the door to Itachi's apartment creak open.

"Who's there?" Itachi's disembodied voice floats into the broom closet. "I know you're…crap."

Deidara frowns in the dark of the closet. I know you're crap? Is Itachi swearing at him? And since when does Itachi swear?

He realizes the answer to his questions when Itachi closes the door to his apartment again. He lets out a sigh of relief. "Itachi must have left his weird red contacts in the apartment." he mutters to himself. "Withought them, he's as blind as a brick wall!"

Deidara lets himself carefully out of the broom closet. He takes a quick look around before scooting rapidly into his apartment, grinning at not being caught. Once he enters the apartment, though, all the exhilaration of his success evaporates, leaving him feeling content and sleepy.

Wordlessly, he walks to the bedroom, where he pulls off his jacket, shirt, shoes, and socks. He walks over to Sasori's bed and feels his Danna's forehead for what seems like the millionth time that night. He frowns. Sasori's forehead is still very warm. No, he can't go to sleep quite yet. It just doesn't feel right to sleep with his Danna so ill. He sits down on the side of Sasori's bed to continue his vigil.

Slowly minutes tick by. Deidara finds his eyes closing. He berates himself mentally and tries to re-open his eyes, but they will not budge. Darn it!

-----

Dawn sees two heads lying on Sasori's pillow. One blonde head and one red head, both sleeping peacefully.

A few minutes later, the redhead's eyes flicker open. He squints in the white morning light and yawns softly. "Good morning, Sasori." he whispers to himself, smiling crookedly. He yawns again. What a weird dream he has had! The last night, he had dreamed of being very small- wait, not small, just very young- and of being carried down a…mountain? No, more like steps. He can still remember the warm comforting feeling of arms wrapped around him, holding him tight…

How odd! Sasori tries to remember anything else from the dream, but nothing comes to his head. Oh, well. It was just a dream. He shivers inside his bed-sheets. Why does everything look so bright, and why is he so cold? The apartment's heater is on. He shouldn't be feeling this way. It's uncanny. Sasori wonders if he's caught a bug. Yes, that's probably it. Maybe he should go check his temperature.  
No, he doesn't feel like getting up yet. He just wants to stare at all the brightness of the rising sun through his window.

A movement next to him catches his attention. He turns his head casually to the side to look at whatever-it-is. His eyes widen. Deidara is lying next to him, very close, but nearly falling off the bed, with a huge silly smile stretched across his face. "Brat?" shouts Sasori. "What the hell?"

Deidara's smile decreases and he presses his face into the pillow muttering something.

"What…?" says Sasori unable to think of anything else to say.

Deidara raises his head with his eyes closed tightly. "No I don't want to buy any soap, un!" he declares loudly. Then he opens his eyes. He sees Sasori's shocked face barely inches from his own. A deep blush spreads across his cheeks. "Danna!" he exclaims. He tries to scramble up, but he ends up falling off the bed with a noisy bump. Ignoring the pain shooting through his rear end, he stands up quickly. "Um…Good morning, Sasori?" he says with a forced smile. Then he rubs his aching bottom. "Ow. That hurt." He looks down guiltily at his friend, who is now staring up at him, looking angry.

"Ok, what were you doing in my bed?" growls Sasori.

"I can explain, un." says Deidara quickly. "You were sick and everything so I took you to the doctor and I just didn't want to leave you alone so I sat down to watch over you to make sure you didn't die or something and I kind of went to sleep." He pauses to take a deep breath. "Sorry. I won't do it again, un." he finishes.

Sasori frowns. "You expect me to believe that you took me all the way to the doctor last night? Get real." he grumbles disgustedly.

Deidara shakes his head. "No, I swear I really did take you. You were burning up, un! You called me Mom!"

Sasori raises an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? And how did you get me down the stairs?" he asks.

Deidara squirms. "I carried you bridal-style.", he admits grudgingly. He expects Sasori to start shouting at him, but instead, Sasori's frown vanishes.

Sasori wraps himself up more tightly in his sheets to stop himself from shivering even more. Funnily enough, Deidara's explanation makes sense. It fits in perfectly with is odd dream. He looks up again at Deidara. "Okay, so you carried me down the steps." he says. "How did you get me to the doctor's clinic?"

Here Deidara grins a big, real grin of satisfaction. "I borrowed Itachi's car."

"You WHAT?!?" exclaims Sasori, sitting up straight. He winces and lets himself fall back down on the bed. He doesn't feel strong enough to sit and talk at the same time. Gosh, he must have really been sick!

He continues interrogating Deidara. "Did Itachi know you took his car, or did you steal it?" he asks, his voice weak.

Deidara hears the change in his Danna's voice, and worry gnaws at his guts again. "I'll tell you later, ok? Just rest now."

Sasori musters up a bit of strength and shakes his head. "Just answer my question.", he says.

Deidara sighs. "Ok, Itachi had no idea I took his car, allright? But I didn't crash it or anything, so it doesn't matter, un." He refrains from mentioning how Itachi nearly caught him after returning the keys. "Ok, questions later! You've got some pills to take to keep the fever down, and I want you to take them right now, un." He picks up his jacket from the floor and pulls the pill tube out of a pocket. He puts the tube on the bed next to Sasori. "Here, take one.", he prompts.

Sasori reaches over to an old glass of water on the small table next to his bed. He reads the instructions on the bottle, opens it, and drops two pills onto his other hand. Deidara watches him take the first pill. He sits down on his own bed. Sasori takes the second pill and puts down the now-empty glass. "I'm going to sleep for a while.", he announces. He closes his eyes and rolls over to his side.

Deidara watches him for a little longer before deciding to get breakfast. He has his hand doorknob when he hears Sasori's voice behind him. "Deidara?"

Dei turns around. "What, Danna?"

Sasori smiles at him- just a little smile, but a real one. His lips form the word, "Thanks."

Deidara grins at him. "Hey, no worries, un." Then he walks happily out of the room to go get breakfast. 


	6. Chapter 5, Part 1

February: End (Part 1)

Deidara lifts up two fireworks from the forty-one he has laid out on the living-room table and looks at them carefully. "Do I use the maroon shell, or the serpentine?" he asks himself. He sighs. "Oh, I dunno!" he shouts, banging the fireworks on the table. He gets up and starts to walk in circles around the living room, muttering to himself.

He has spent the last hour trying to decide which of his two favorite fireworks he would use in that night's show. That night, being Valentine's Day's night, he wants the show to be special. He has a whole series of forty fireworks planned out for release at the start of that night's show. It would be a truly spectacular show, the biggest one he has conducted since New Year's. Nevertheless, Deidara is not ready yet. All performers know that spectacular shows need spectacular ends, and he can't choose which firework to use as an ending to his show.

He is still pacing when, five minutes later, Sasori strolls into the living room, chomping on a chicken sandwich. He sees Dei and frowns. "Are you ready yet?", he asks, already knowing what his roommate's answer will be.

As he expects, his blonde friend glares at him and says, "No, un."

Sasori shoves the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth. He walks over to the table and looks at the fireworks lined up on it. "What's the matter this time?" he sighs.

Deidara walks over to the table and picks up the two fireworks he has doubts about. "I can't choose between them, un." he explains. "The maroon shell makes a very loud bang, and the serpentine throws out these cool things that look like shiny snakes. They're my favorites, un."

Sasori nods and takes the two fireworks from Deidara's hands. "What firework do you start your show with?" he asks seriously.

"Another Serpentine," admits Deidara. "but I thought it might be impressive to finish the show with what it started with, un."

Sasori puts the two fireworks down on the table. "Allright, I don't know what the proper way to do firework shows is, but if I were you, I would start the show with the maroon shell and finish with the serpentine.", he advises.

Deidara's eyes light up. "Frighten the city with a loud bang so they run out from their houses to watch my show? That's great, un!" he exclaims, beaming from ear to ear. He swiftly changes around the order of some of the fireworks he had lined up n the table. "Perfect.", he says, satisfied. "Wonderfully artistic."

Sasori shakes his head. "They're not artistic. Pretty, yes, but loud and unartistic."

Deidara sighs wearily. "Let's not have this argument again, Danna. What I do is true art, and you just play with big Barbies and string."

Sasori crosses his arms and scowls. "Dolls? No. My puppets are art, and I certainly don't play with them, idiot."

Deidara grins naughtily. "Ooh, Danna plays with dollies!", he says in a fake high voice. "What a good little girl, un!"

Sasori scowls even more. Deidara walks up close to him, and pokes his face with a finger. "Nice face, Sasori. It makes you look constipated, un." he teases. He gets ready to dodge a punch or a slap, but to his surprise, none comes. Instead, Sasori reaches out and sweeps the long fringe that covers Dei's left eye aside to glare into both his eyes at once. Sasori's eyes are clear, shiny, and dangerous. If eyes could do things like that, Sasori's would be shooting lasers through Deidara.

Deidara looks into his eyes, feeling kind of frightened, but awed and warm at the same time. They stand there staring at each other for a minute before Sasori lets the fringe fall back over Deidara's eye. He turns around with his back to Deidara, as if in disgust. "You are just like your fireworks.", he mutters, staring at the door of the apartment. "You're pretty, loud, and annoying, and unless you stop saying things like that, you will not live much longer either. So shut up." He walks off toward the apartment door, seems to change his mind, turns around again, and walks off to the storeroom. He slams the door behind himself.

Deidara stays frozen at the spot, staring straight ahead. He reaches up absentmindedly and pulls his fingers through the hair messily covering his left eye. He can feel his face heating up. Why does his Danna do such weird things sometimes? These little exchanges always leave Deidara feeling so…odd. He really doesn't know what to think about Sasori. Sometimes they really hate each other. Other times, they are the best of friends. Still other times…everything is vague and confusing, like right now.

Deidara tries to scratch an itch in the middle of his back, and gives up when he can't reach it. His disturbing feelings are somewhat drowned out by his annoyance at the itch. He walks to the storeroom and knocks on the door. Maybe he should ask Sasori-no-Danna why he didn't hit him. Anyway, it would be better than trying to guess. Deidara hates guessing. He has hated it ever since… "Come in!", shouts Sasori, pulling Deidara out of his reverie.

Deidara opens the door cautiously. He sees his Danna sitting by a large box staring at the puppet inside. Deidara walks up to Sasori and looks down into the box. He recognizes the blonde-female puppet inside. "Are you going to use that Day-puppet today?" he asks Sasori quietly.

"I dunno." says Sasori softly. He stares at her for another few minutes, before standing up. "Actually, I'm not going to use her today, but I think I'll take her to the theater anyway."

Deidara frowns. "If you're not going to use her, why bother taking her, un?"

Sasori shrugs and closes Day's box carefully. "I'm using her tomorrow. I might as well carry her over today so I don't have to do it then." he explains. He lifts the heavy box easily, his arms strong from many years of carrying puppets. He starts walking toward the storeroom door, which Deidara had conveniently left open. He stops in the doorway and looks over his shoulder. "Before I leave, is there anything you want?"

Deidara frowns. "No.", he says.

"Then why'd you come in here?" Sasori asks, slightly curious.

Deidara shrugs. "It's nothing, un", he says.

Sasori raises his eyebrows, but walks out in silence, leaving Deidara in the storeroom. He holds the box carefully in one arm and lets himself out of the apartment. He doesn't bother to close the door after himself. He knows his roommate will do that for him.

He gets to the back entrance of the theater early. So early that he stands around outside for five minutes before Pein and Konan arrive. Pein smiles in approval at his earliness and lets him into the large dressing room. Konan flashes him a little smile as well. How odd. Konan never smiles.

Sasori goes straight to a large rack where the puppets he and his assistants would use that night were hanging. He takes Day out of her box and hangs her on the end of the rack, ready for tomorrow. He looks over the rest of his puppets carefully, making sure they are all greased and perfect for his show. He's due to be on stage first that night, and he wants everything to be perfect, just like it always is.

He hears the door of the dressing room creak open. He doesn't bother to turn around. He already knows who it is by the "Ooh, heavy, heavy, heavy, un, way too heavy…" coming from the person. Sure enough, Deidara stumbles up to him and nearly drops an enormous box of fireworks all over the floor.

Sasori looks sideways at Deidara. "You ok?" he asks.

Deidara smiles. "Yeah, I'm just not used to carrying forty shells in a box at once." he explains. He flexes his fingers and whistles. "Good thing I don't have to carry them back home after the show, un." he comments.

Sasori nods and continues checking his puppets for any defects.

Deidara watches him for a few minutes, before getting bored. He walks over to Pein and starts describing his whole firework show in great detail. Pein and Konan pretend to be interested, but Deidara can tell he is boring them to death. "Anyway, I guess I'd better go set up my show." he finishes. "Lend me the keys, Pein."  
Pein passes over the key ring, and Deidara walks over to his box. He picks it up carefully, and stumbles off toward the stairs that lead to the flies of the theater.

Up on the roof, Dei lines the fireworks up strategically for his show. It takes him longer than usual, because the fireworks had gotten mixed up in the box.

Dei has just finished when the roof door opens up, and Sasori walks gingerly onto the roof. He looks around quickly. He has never been up on the roof before. He sees Deidara and walks toward him with light, careful steps.

Dei sees him and grins. "What'cha doing up here, Danna? Did you come to watch my show, un?" he asks.

Sasori shakes his head no. "Pein sent me up to tell you that we'll be starting in fifteen minutes. He says to go ahead with your show and they'll all be watching from down below. The local news is going to be filming you from down there too."

Dei's eyes widen with surprise. "The news?!?" he exclaims.

Sasori frowns. "Is there some problem with that?"

Deidara shakes his head hard. "No, that's great!" he yells. "Let's start now!"

Sasori nods understandingly. "Yes, by all means start." he says. He turns around softly and starts to walk back towards the door, but Deidara catches his sleeve.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!?" he demands.

Sasori does a half turn and stares into Deidara's face. "I'm going back down. I don't like it up here." he says.

Deidara raises his eyebrows. "Danna is afraid of heights?" he asks bluntly.

Sasori blushes his pale blush. "No.", he says weakly.

Deidara grins maliciously down at him. "Good," he purrs. " 'Cause you're staying up here with me, un."

Sasori goes pale and sits down with a thud, as if his feet had deserted him.

"You stay there." commands Deidara. He walks over to the roof-door and locks it, so Sasori can't get out. Then he walks right to the edge of the roof and looks over it. He sees the camera crew, looking tiny on the ground far below.

"Don't fall off, Brat!" Deidara hears Sasori calling out from behind him.

Deidara smiles reassuringly over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I do this all the time!" he yells.

Sasori does not feel very comforted at the thought of his Brat tempting fate so often, but he keeps silent. He feels very odd up here on the roof. He can feel his head reeling and his stomach flipping inside him.

He feels a bit better once Deidara stops shouting at the people below and steps away from the edge.

Deidara looks at him again and walks over to where he is sitting. He leans down to look at Sasori's pale face. "Gosh, you really are afraid of heights, aren't you, Danna? That's weird, seeing as you perform from a hanging bridge over the stage." He reaches out and pats his Danna on the shoulder, saying, "Anyway, don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Sasori glares up at him, indignant at being treated like a small, fearful child. "It's practically impossible to fall off my bridge, Brat. Just start the show already."

"That's the spirit, un!" says Dei enthusiastically. He strides over to the first firework lined up on the roof, the large maroon shell Sasori had helped him to pick earlier. "This is going to be a blast.", he grins. "Because Art is a BANG, UN!!!!"

Deidara whips a box of matches seemingly out of nowhere. He pulls out a match, strikes it, and lights the fuse sticking out of the top of the maroon. He steps backwards quickly as the shell shoots into the sky and explodes with a bright flash of purple light and a loud, resonant BOOM. He stands back for a few minutes for the sound to dissipate. Then in a flurry of actions, he begins running up and down the row, setting fireworks off. Sometimes he sets off two consecutively. Sometimes he waits for one to vanish completely before starting on the next. He weaves through the row of forty fireworks laughing loudly, watching his creations fly up and burst into flames of fiery beauty.

Sasori watches Deidara, unimpressed. All Deidara seems to be doing is running around setting annoying bangers off. Sasori is not enjoying this. He refuses to look up at the bright explosions. "What a waste of materials!" he mutters under his breath.

Deidara pauses in his maneuvers for a moment. "Why are you looking at me, Danna? Look at the fireworks, un!", he shouts at Sasori.

Sasori frowns.

"Do it!", yells Deidara. "I'm gonna set off a good one now, un!" He strikes another match.

Sasori sighs and looks upwards, just as a large chrysanthemum shell rockets up into the sky. Colored lights fly in front of Sasori's eyes, dazzling him. "I've gone blind!", he thinks. He rubs his eyes vigorously before looking up again. When he does, a large, cometlike firework crosses the sky and explodes into a million golden stars. It was…kind of pretty. Not art, never art, but…pretty.

Sasori watches the rest of the show. Unfortunately, it's not very long. Too soon, Deidara sets off the huge serpentine that marks the end of the show. The shell ascends erratically through the sky and explodes. Long, writhing shapes that resemble snakes fly out of it in all directions and slither viciously toward the ground. Deidara hears screaming from below. As the serpentine's tails dissipate before reaching the ground, the screams dissolve into clapping and cheering. Deidara's grin widens so much he feels his ears hurting. He sprints over to the side of the roof again and leans over the edge.

To his amazement and utter delight, a huge crowd has gathered around the theater. It's almost as if the whole city has come to see him! Dei can see the news reporters' van down below, their large cameras pointing at him, and only him. He raises him arms in triumph, and then bows down low to the cheering crowd. So low, in fact, that he looses his balance. He has to step backwards so as not to fall over the edge. He steadies himself rapidly, turns around, and races to where Sasori is shakily trying to stand up. Dei grabs his Danna's arm and carefully helps him stand up again, asking, "So, Danna, did you like my show or not?"

His question seems to hover in the air, cutting through the crowd's yells. For some odd reason, it seems like an important question. Sasori tries to think of an answer and ignore the fact that he is on a roof at the same time. The only thing that pops into his head is…

Sasori goes pale. He shakes Deidara's hand off his arm and strides towards the door as fast as he can manage withought losing his balance.

"Hey!", shouts Deidara, confused. "Where are you going, un?"

Sasori doesn't answer. He reaches the door to the theater. He tries to open the door. It refuses to budge. He frowns and pulls on the doorknob.

Deidara runs up to him and dangles the keys in front of his face mischievously. "We're locked out up here, remember?", he laughs. "You stupid-headed Danna, un!"

Sasori glares and tries to grab the keys form Deidara's hand.

Deidara lifts them up out of his reach and waggles a finger at him, berating him loudly. "Danna is such a bad boy.", he scolds. "Danna is staying up on the roof until he answers Deidara-sama's question, un."

Sasori sighs with annoyance. "I'm on first, Brat! My show starts in exactly ten minutes. My assistants are probably going crazy. Give them to me!", he says, extending his hand towards the keys.

Deidara shakes his head and lifts the keys even higher.

Sasori seethes. He considers jumping up and grabbing the keys. No. Too childish. Maybe he could postpone answering Deidara's question? "I'll tell you later. Just let me in now.", he mutters. His quiet voice sounds almost pleading.

Deidara looks down at him suspiciously. Is Sasori avoiding his question? No, it can't be. He shrugs and drops the keys into Sasori's open hand. "You owe me an answer,", he announces grandly. "But you can go now, un." Dei turns around and starts to pick up the forty metal mortars that he uses to launch his fireworks, and his huge box.

Sasori shakes his head and unlocks the door. "I don't owe him anything.", he thinks as he steps down the stairs to the backstage of the theater.

His ten assistants are waiting down below, each one getting his or her puppet off the rack and preparing it for the show. Sasori is always mildly impressed at their obedience. His assistants are almost like... human puppets. He supposed it must be his good training.

One of the assistants, a tall, brown-haired young man with purple tattoos on his face notices Sasori and shouts at the other assistants, "Hey, guys! Sasori's here!"

All the assistants look up from their puppets. They smile at Sasori and nod. Some of them say hello to him. Sasori gives them a half-smile and he walks over to the rack and pulls out the two puppets he would be controlling that night. He notices that two puppets remain hanging on the rack, ownerless. Two rather important puppets. He looks over his assistants, frowning. Who is missing? Oh, yes. The old lady. Sasori swears under his breath. Why did she have to choose today to be late?

Chiyo, the old lady, is his oldest assistant. She is seventy-eight years old and somewhat arthritic, but she is very good with the puppets. She and Kankuro, the tattooed young man, are the only two assistants who Sasori can trust with the more complicated puppets of the show. If Chiyo doesn't arrive soon, his show will be ruined.

As Sasori wonders what to do, the theater's door opens and Chiyo stumbles in, panting. Sasori fixes her with a stony glare. "You're late.", he growls.

Chiyo coughs shakily. "It's not fun being old.", she wheezes. "My creaks were bad today, Boy."

Sasori's eyes narrow. "Get your puppets ready, Grandma. We're on in five minutes.", he mutters dangerously. Then he switches his attention back to his two puppets.

Chiyo silently pulls her two puppets off the rack and begins checking them over. She notices that one of them, a pink-haired female puppet has a loose joint on one of her arms.

She pulls out a screw-driver and starts tightening the joint, but Pein walks into the room and shouts, "Allright Sasori, get your troop up into the flies, we start in two minutes!"

Sasori nods and motions to assistants.

They troop up to the flies of the theater and onto the special bridge that they perform from. Fourteen puppets, in bright, gaudy dresses are lowered down to the stage. The puppeteer and his ten assistants assume their positions.

The show is ready to begin.

-----

Deidara lumps his box full of mortars down the stairs. He reaches the bottom of the stairs and is nearly run over by a swarm of media pepole.

Five reporters and two cameramen surround him, talking fast and loud, jabbing his face with microphones. Dei takes a step back, trips over a tripod, and falls over. His box flies out of his hands. The metal mortars fly everywhere, hitting reporters and clanging loudly against the floor.

The loud noise brings Pein, Hidan and Zetsu over. Pein immediately starts shouting at the reporters. His voice goes on and on for several minutes. The reporters and cameramen stand around in shocked silence, not knowing what to do or say. Pein finishes his diatribe with a stony look at Hidan, Zetsu, and Deidara, who are crawling around on the floor, picking up the fallen mortars. He leans down and picks up one. He looks carefully at the metal cylinder, before passing it to Deidara, saying, "This one's bent."

Deidara ruefully inspects the damaged mortar before glaring up at the reporters. "You better pay for these, un.", he mutters angrily. "Don't you know how hard it is to get these?"

The reporters hover around him nervously, whispering to each other.

Anger wells up inside Deidara. He jumps to his feet and yells, "What do you want from me, un? Go away, suckers!" He picks up his box and barges straight through the reporters. Pein, Hidan, and Zetsu, knowing a bad temper when they see one, back away quickly.

Deidara glares at them too. He strides to a corner of the room, dumps his box down, pulls out two mortars. He inspects them carefully. Both are broken. He sighs and drops them back into the box.

"Hey." Deidara hears a soft voice from behind him. He turns around a bit to see who is talking to him. He sees one of the reporters has detached herself from the group. She is very professional looking, with her short skirt-suit and well-done make-up. Deidara finds himself staring into her alluring eyes. Such a pretty color… No! He forces himself to look away from her. "What?", he asks, trying to sound stern. It doesn't work. His voice sounds weak and shaky. What's wrong with him? Something about her magnetic eyes…

The reporter-lady sees his insecurity and laughs. She puts a hand on his shoulder. "Look at me.", she says.

Deidara looks at her again, and his head feels odd and light. Her eyes seem to be pulling him in…

"Are you hypnotizing me?", he blurts out.

She laughs again. "Silly," she says fondly. "We only want to interview you."

Deidara nods, speechless. He can't take his eyes off hers.

She laughs again at his dazzled expression, and directs him towards the other reporters.

"Good job, Kurenai!", laughs one of the cameramen. "You've really got a gift there."

Kurenai smiles coquettishly at him and blushes. "Thanks, Asuma-honey.", she says.

He grins back at her, before turning around to talk with the other cameraman. They whisper together for a few minutes, before they turn around to face Kurenai.

The other cameraman, a tall fellow with a wild shock of silver hair, starts talking. "Right, guys. Asuma and Kurenai will take Mr.…Fireworks to the front of the theater for his interview. The rest of you, stay here and do your thing, ok?"

The reporters nod. Some of them pull out note-pads. They all walk off in different directions, except a wild-looking young lady.

She winks at the silver haired cameraman. "Ok, Kakashi, let's go get the manager-dude!"

Kakashi smiles. "Let's go, Anko." They walk off together, leaving Asuma, Kurenai, and Deidara standing together.

Asuma balances his camera on his shoulder carefully and extends a hand to Deidara. "Hi, I'm Asuma Sarutobi and I will be filming your interview." Deidara stares speechlessly at his hand.

"Shake it.", prompts Kurenai.

Deidara shakes Asuma's hand mechanically. "Nice to meet you, un.", he says monotonously.

Asuma sighs. "I think you zapped him too much, Kurenai.", he says.

Kurenai shakes her head. "I had to. He wouldn't have agreed otherwise.", she says.

Asuma shrugs. "As long as he doesn't drool during the interview, I don't mind.", he says. Then he laughs. "That would be funny though!" Kurenai joins in his laughter.

They walk out of the back door to the theater and round to the front with Deidara in tow. There, Kurenai positions herself near the entrance to the theater, and pulls out her microphone.

Deidara stands languidly next to her. She looks him over and straightens his shirt. Then she looks him in the eyes again. She snaps her fingers. Deidara blinks rapidly, shakes his head, and looks questioningly at Kurenai. She smiles at him soothingly and talks softly. "Hello, Deidara. I'm here to interview you today. Asuma over there will be filming you. I'm going to ask you questions, and I want you to answer them truthfully, ok?"

Deidara nods. "What kind of questions, un?"

Kurenai shrugs. "Just questions. You'll see. Now look at the camera."

Deidara looks at the camera.

Asuma grins at him. "5-4-3-2-1 Start!", he says, and he flicks his camera on.

Kurenai smiles angelically at the camera. "Hello! I'm Kurenai Yuuhi on the Late Night News. Today I will be interviewing Deidara from the Akatsuki theater group on location right outside the theater. Deidara, we've all heard about your wonderful firework displays. So, how does it feel to be famous?"

Deidara scratches his head. "Famous? I'm not famous, un.", he asks confused. His head feels like it's full of cotton wool, and he can't quite think straight. What is he doing being interviewed, anyway? He meets Kurenai's gaze and suddenly his mind clears a bit. He's on camera. He's being interviewed for the television. He grins at the camera. "I really don't know how to answer that question, un.", he says smoothly. "I've been recognized a few times by people, but that's, like, really rare. People know my fireworks, not me, un."

Kurenai nods understandingly. "So, in your opinion, why are your fireworks so famous?"

Deidara gives out a small bark of laughter. "Because they rock, un! Everyone likes my fireworks. I can only think of one person who disses my fireworks."

Kurenai seems interested. "Oh? Who is this person?" Deidara's smile vanishes. He looks away from the camera.

"Who?", repeats Kurenai.

Deidara looks up quickly again. "My room-mate, Sasori no Danna. My fireworks are art, but he doesn't think so. We're always fighting about that."

Kurenai looks confused. "Sasori no Danna? Would this be Sasori Akasuna, the famous puppeteer?"

Deidara nods. "Yeah, that's my nickname for him."

Kurenai nods too and continues on to the next question.

-----

The rest of the interview goes as planned.

As soon as it's over, Asuma flicks his camera off and gives Kurenai the thumbs up signal.

Kurenai smiles at him and stretches. She looks Deidara in the eyes again, snaps her fingers and mutters "Release."

Deidara jumps upright with a yell and looks around frantically. "What the hell? How'd I get here?", he yells. He sees Kurenai and Asuma and his eyes narrow viciously. "You scum!", he yells angrily. "You hypnotized me or something, didn't you? I can sue you, you know!"

Kurenai and Asuma exchange glances and then they walk off silently.

Deidara's temper blazes even higher. He runs up to them "Don't ignore me, un!", he roars.

Asuma and Kurenai turn around. Deidara meets Kurenai's eyes and falters. Those eyes of hers… they're positively dangerous, like twin snakes twisting towards his, fangs bared. Deidara pales, turns around and runs off as fast as he can towards the theater back door.

As soon as he disappears around the side of the building, Asuma and Kurenai burst into laughter. "They all do that, don't they?", chokes Asuma.

Kurenai nods wordlessly, overcome by laughter. The couple walk off together, still laughing, holding hands.

(Continued in Part 2) 


	7. Chapter 5, Part 2

February: End (Part 2)

--------

Sasori and his ten assistants troop down from the flies of the theater.

The assistants hang their puppets up on the rack, chatting together happily about the show.

Sasori watches them disdainfully as he hangs up his own puppets. Young people are just so…frivolous.

Chiyo comes up behind Sasori and wordlessly hangs up her puppets. She starts making her way through the assistants to the door. She has just opened the door, when she hears Sasori calling her name. She turns around, and with a little wheezing cough, she asks, "What do you want now, Kid?"

Sasori glares at her. "You were late today. Because you nearly held up the show, you will stay after tonight's performances are done and practice the battle scene for tomorrow.", he growls.

Chiyo sighs. "At what time does the last show end?", she asks.

Sasori looks at his watch and answers, "At eleven-thirty."

Chiyo nods. "I'll be here, Boy." Then she turns around and vanishes out the door.

A grunt of annoyance escapes from Sasori's throat. He rushes to the door and wrenches it open. "If you're not here at eleven forty-five sharp, I'm getting a replacement for you!", he shouts angrily at her receding figure. He starts to close the door again but something pushes it forcibly open and rams into him, knocking him onto the floor. "Hey, watch where you're going!", he yells at the person tangled up with him.

"Oops, sorry!", exclaims Deidara, quickly disentangling himself from Sasori. He stands up fast, blushing madly.

Sasori glares at him from the floor. "You should be more careful, Brat. This is, what, the third time you've crashed into me like this?", he scolds. He sits up and rubs the back of his head. Ouch. That hurt. He's probably got a bruise now, thanks to his stupid Brat. He gingerly pulls himself upright. Ow, his bottom hurts too. That makes it two bruises.

Deidara sees the pained expression on Sasori's face. "Are you allright, Danna, un?", he asks.

He reaches out to help, but Sasori rebuffs him with a glare. "No, I'm not allright. If I've got any bruises anywhere, Deidara, I'm going to hold you responsible," he snarls.

Deidara frowns. "Well, excuse me saying so," he says. "But any stupid bruise on your bum is nothing compared to what happened to me."

The strength of Sasori's glare increases. "Oh yeah? What happened to you this time? Oh, no, wait, don't tell me, I don't want to know. All you young people are the same! So dumb, and so stupid. Whenever you're bored, you bother me! You make me lose valuable time! Then something moderately unpleasant happens to you, and it's 'ooh, help, Sasori-Danna!' as if I'm some kind of guardian angel or something," Sasori shouts, venting out all his pain, his anger at Chiyo, and his bottled up annoyances of the past months. "You just don't seem to realize that I don't care what happens to you, Brat! We share an apartment, and nothing else. You stupid little Brat!" He pauses, breathing heavily.

Deidara, in front of him, stares in shock, unable to digest completely what Sasori is shouting at him. He lifts a finger timidly and says softly, "Er, Danna, I think you're missing the whole point of everything. You see, the news reporter hypnotized me, and…"

"Whatever," interrupts Sasori in a low, murderous voice. "I wouldn't care if the news reporter raped you." He walks off, and collapses onto a bench, spent from his unusual burst of anger.

Deidara stares at him for a few more minutes. Then he lowers his eyes, and sits down on the floor, staring at his feet.

Hidan, his black and white make-up half on, has been watching. He walks over and sits down next to Deidara. "Hey, Dei" he says comfortingly. "Don't listen to that bastard, ok? All shy people are like that. They're kind of quiet, and then they, like, piss off for nothing. I know how you feel, asshole, Kuzu's exactly the same. He's such a bitch, that Sasori. C'mon, let's go play spit or something."

Deidara looks up at Hidan. "No thanks, Hidan. I don't feel like playing now."

Hidan shakes his head wisely. "Yeah, you're saying that now 'cause you're in shock, but in a couple of minutes the shock is going to go away, and you're going to feel like ripping Sasori a new hole. You should waste your energy on playing cards or something so you don't kill him."

Deidara nods. What Hidan is saying makes sense. In fact, Deidara can slowly feel anger welling up inside him. He jumps to his feet. "Tell you what, Hidan," he says. "I don't want to play cards now, but how about we go for a walk or something? You know, go down to the park where I can beat up some trees, un?"

Hidan shrugs. "Itachi's on now, and I go after Kisame. Allright, let's go, but only a quick walk, ok?"

The two friends walk out of the big dressing room together.

Meanwhile, Sasori sits on the bench, his eyes closed tightly, his mind whirring.  
He truly did not mean to shout at Deidara. All of his little annoyances and his pain from the fall had combined dangerously and suddenly inside him, and had caused him to vent out all his anger on his roommate. Deep inside, he is actually quite fond of the Brat. It takes Sasori a lot to admit it, but yes. The eight months they had spent together had taught him that. His brow furrows, and he sighs. The Brat probably wouldn't forgive an outburst like that one quickly, damn it. Sasori feels like kicking himself.

He feels the bench shaking a bit as if someone has just sat down next to him. He ignores the tremor, wrapped up in his thoughts.

"Lover's tiff, huh?", whispers a soft voice in his ear.

Sasori's eyes snap open and he glares angrily at Kisame, who grins a toothy grin at him. "You're blushing, Saso," teases Kisame. He holds up a hand mirror in front of Sasori's face. Sure enough, a pale blush spreads like a rash across Sasori's face.

Sasori's frown increases. He pushes away the hand mirror and stands up. "Go flush your head down the toilet," he mutters. Then he pushes off towards the lavatory.

"You tell me to flush my head down the toilet, and then you go block up the bathroom. You're acting like the blonde bitch, Sasori," shouts Kisame behind him.

Sasori ignores the insult and enters the bathroom. He locks the door to make sure no-body bursts in on him. He looks at the toilet and decides not to use it. Instead, he walks over to the sink and splashes water on his face. He stares at his blushing, dripping face in the mirror and wonders what is wrong with him. He looks the same as he did eight months ago. Same wild red hair. Same brown eyes. Same perpetually young face. But… something is different. Could he have changed inside? Yes, that must be it. He remembers painfully that as an eight-year old orphan he had developed a tough exterior to hide his feelings of loss and pain at the death of his parents. He had done such a good job at becoming cold and hard that he had even managed to convince himself that that coldness was his true self. He had become like a stringless puppet. But deep inside himself his true self was waiting to be found.

Sasori realizes for the first time in his life that he is more than an uncaring shell. He is Sasori Akasuna, puppeteer extraordinaire, a human crawling on the face of the Earth. A true being.

How… inconvenient.

Sasori sighs and looks away from the mirror. "Right, what does this have to do with Deidara?" he mutters to himself. Good question. He closes his eyes and decides to think about it more later. All this self-discovery has put quite a strain on his mind, and he doesn't feel ready to tackle this question about Deidara. He feels the cold shell closing once more over his mind, and he lets it close, cutting off the deep, painful parts of his mind.

Back to his fake, icy self, he lets himself out of the bathroom. He walks wordlessly up to his rack of puppets. He considers taking some of the unneeded ones back to his apartment, but quickly decides against it. He's not in the mood for carrying stuff around, especially not the large, heavy puppets. He gives a sigh. He's bored. There's nothing interesting to do in the theater once his show is done. Then again, his apartment is just as boring. Well… withought Deidara, it is. All he can do there is make puppets. Wait, that's not so bad, is it? But Sasori feels like doing something different for once. Something like…like…um…oh, whatever. Sasori pulls a random puppet off the rack and inspects it. He returns it to the rack, finding nothing wrong with it. He sighs again. He really is bored.

Sasori is just standing there in front of his puppet rack when he hears the door slam open. He turns around, already quite sure who has arrived.

Sure enough, Deidara stands in the doorway, his face red with anger, his hands clenched into fists, glaring at Sasori with a searing gaze of pure hatred. Sasori gets ready to dodge a savage attack from his angered roommate. But Deidara does nothing. He simply stands there glaring at Sasori with that blazing, murderous glare of his. Sasori can feel imaginary daggers, plunging into his body, gutting him and strewing his internal organs everywhere. Still, Sasori can't take his eyes off Deidara's eyes. Deidara's eyes seem to be shouting at him, murdering him with unspoken words.

Then suddenly Deidara takes a deep breath, and his voice rises to an almost ear-splitting volume as he roars out his words of hatred to Sasori. "You bastard! I hate you! I wish I could blow you up into tiny little bits and fling those scraps of you to the ends of the earth! I never want to see your stupid face ever again! You make me sick! I wish you would DIE, UN!!!"

Sasori takes a step backward from the barrage of hared emanating from Deidara. Such ferocity…

Sasori is just starting to wonder whether he should make a hasty retreat to the bathroom or if he should just stand still, and risk getting beaten up, when Hidan limps through the open door with his clothes bloodstained and his face bruised. He puts a hand on Deidara's shoulder. "Leave it, Dei." he whispers in his friend's ears. "Beat me up instead, ok? Leave the bastard alone."

Deidara wheels around, fixing his glare on Hidan. "No, Hidan," Dei hisses. "I've already punched you enough. Look at the blood on you! I don't want to kill you, you're my friend, UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE, UN."

Hidan extends his arms outwards and grins. "Aww, c'mon, bitch! I've had worse done to me before! I love pain!"

Still, Deidara shakes his head. "No.", he says. He shoots a super-strong blast of glare at Sasori, and then he runs to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Hidan pouts at the closed door. "Damn, I'm not bleeding enough yet!" he whines. He pulls a large knife from his pocket, and starts chopping at his wrists merrily.

Sasori grimaces. What a masochistic freak!

Kakuzu, the accountant, puts down his accounting book and calculator, and stands up from the bench on which he had been sitting. He strides over to Hidan and extracts the knife from his roommate's hand. "Hidan, I told you not to cut yourself with the kitchen knives, he grumbles. "If you have to cut yourself, use your own knife."

Hidan throws a bloody arm around Kakuzu's shoulder. "Aww, c'mon, Kuzu! My knife is so fucking small, it hardly hurts at all!" he complains.

Kakuzu's face screws up into an expression of disgust. "It's big enough, you masochist. And stop bleeding on my suit!"

Hidan carefully wipes his bleeding arm on Kakuzu's suit, leaving bloodstains on it. "Oops, sorry," he says. He pulls the knife out of Kakuzu's hand, licks some blood off it, drops the knife on the floor, and walks toward the bathroom. He arrives at the door to the bathroom, remembers Deidara is in it, swears a bit, and walks back to where he left his make-up. He decides the blood looks awesome for his act, so he doesn't bother cleaning off. Instead, he fixes the make-up on his face, and applies some more fake blood to his clothes. Concluding that he looks horrifyingly sexy, he picks up a cool horror novel he had been reading earlier, and sits down on the floor to read.

Meanwhile, Sasori has sat down on a bench alone, staring up at the ceiling. Apart from being a puppet master, Sasori was also a master at spacing out. Having nothing better to do, he had spaced out like normal, but, slowly, he finds his eyelids feel heavy. His eyes close softly. "Damn!", he thinks, just before falling asleep.

Deidara opens the bathroom door and strides out. He shoots a murderous glance at Sasori, who is snoring softly. He looks at Hidan, who is immersed into some cheap horror novel, and decides not to bother him. Instead, he sits down next to his box of bent mortars. He gives a little sigh. He's sooooo bored. For a minute, he considers going back to the apartment, but, no, the apartment is too boring. Or at least withought Sasori, it is… Wait, he's angry with Sasori! No friendly thoughts! Sasori sucks! Yeah.

Deidara glares at Sasori again. Stupid Sasori. He sees his roommate's blank, sleepy face, and an idea forms in his head. He gets up, a small smile forming on his face. He walks over to Hidan, and asks, "Hidan, can I borrow your make-up for a while?"

Hidan nods. "Sure, take it. Just don't use it all up," he says, still with his nose in his book.

Deidara's eyes widen. "You didn't swear, un!" he says incredulously.

Hidan extracts himself from the books and scowls up at Deidara. "Shut up, asshole. I'm trying to read my fucking book, ok?" he growls.

Deidara nods. "Yeah, have fun, un.", he says, and he reaches out for Hidan's bag of make-up.

He walks up to Sasori carefully, carrying the make-up. He sorts through the bag, carefully choosing his materials. He chooses a tube of white pasty-stuff, a red lipstick, a black eyeliner-pencil, a small case of eye shadow, and a small jar of fake blood.  
First, he takes up the white stuff. He looks through the make-up bag to find something to use to apply the paste to Sasori's face, but he doesn't find anything appropriate. Instead, he resorts to using his fingers. He carefully spreads a blob of the white goop over Sasori's face, hoping Sasori doesn't wake up. He tries to apply it evenly, but he's not used to dealing with make-up, and it ends up looking somewhat patchy. Oh, well. It looks worse like that, anyway. He stands for a few minutes, letting the white gunk dry.

Next, he takes up the eye shadow compact. He chooses an intense dark blue. He makes a thick, panda-like ring around Sasori's eyes with it. He grins. Wow, Sasori sure looks horrible!

Next, Deidara picks up the black eye liner. He turns around. "Hidan, insult me, un!"

Hidan insults Deidara withought even stopping reading. "You're a stupid fucking fag and you should burn in hell, you bastard."

"Thanks, Hidan!", says Deidara happily, and he writes "Bastard" and "Fag" on Sasori's cheeks with the eyeliner.

Finally, he picks up the lipstick and the fake blood. He splashes the writing on Sasori's cheeks with the blood, and paints Sasori's lips a lovely shade of bright red.  
He puts away Hidan's make up, and looks at Sasori's face. Wow. How hideous!  
Deidara snickers. Just one thing left to do now… Deidara carefully reaches into Sasori's pocket and pulls out his cell phone. He carefully takes a picture of Sasori, and sets it as the phone's background. Giggling madly, he slides the phone back into Sasori's pocket.

As Deidara pulls his hand out, Sasori's face contorts in sleep and a little groan escapes his lips. Deidara frowns. "Wonder what he's dreaming about, un?" he thinks to himself. "That groan sounded pretty weird." Suddenly, the trick doesn't seem quite so funny as before. Maybe it wasn't really fair… no, it was perfectly fair! Deidara shakes his head hard, as if trying to rid himself of his conscience. "I hate you, Danna," he whispers. "You suck, un!" He forces a smile, walks over to Hidan, and pokes him in the shoulder. "Hey, Hidan, come take a look at this!" he says to his bad-mouthed friend.

Hidan waves him away. "Later, asshole. My book is just getting good."

Deidara snorts and yanks the book out of Hidan's hands. "Seriously, Hidan, this is worth looking at."

Hidan glares at him and tries to grab the book back.

Deidara whips it away and runs off towards Sasori.

Hidan growls and chases after him.

Deidara dangles it provocatively over Sasori.

Hidan stops running and reaches for his dear horror novel. Then he sees Sasori's face, and forgets all about the book. He stands there gawping at Sasori's face. "Wow," he murmurs incredulously. "That's fucking beautiful." He explodes into laughter.

Deidara's grin returns and he joins in Hidan's laughter. Hidan thwacks him merrily on the back.

"You're a genius, a fucking genius!" Hidan keeps saying in between bouts of laughter.

"I know I am!" laughs Deidara throwing an arm jovially around Hidan's shoulder. "I know I am, un!"

----------

A large white room. Sasori is sitting in the middle of it, staring up at the roof.

He hears footsteps behind him. He looks over his shoulder, but no one's there. He looks forward again, and someone's sitting there with him. Who? It's Deidara! Wait… what's Deidara doing here?

Deidara sits there, staring up at the ceiling, not noticing him. Sasori calls out to Deidara, but nothing comes out of his mouth.

Nevertheless, Deidara looks at him. He raises a hand in greeting, and smiles softly. Sasori smiles back.

Deidara stands up and walks up to Sasori, his footsteps making no sound at all. Sasori suddenly finds himself mysteriously tied to the ground. He tries to pull free from the strings, but he can't move. "Deidara!" he gasps. "Untie me! Please!"

Deidara shakes his head no. He stands over Sasori for a minute, looking down at him. He still smiles, but there's something about that smile that Sasori doesn't like now.

Something odd happens to Sasori's vision then. Fog-like stuff seems to surround him and Deidara, but he can't feel it at all. Deidara doesn't seem to see it.  
What is Deidara doing? Sasori can't quite tell. He tries to squint through the white stuff, but it's gotten too thick.

Then, he sees Deidara's face barely an inch from his. He can feel his face heating up. Deidara lifts a hand and strokes Sasori's face with his fingertips. It doesn't feel bad, but Deidara's fingers are cold. Sasori closes his eyes. He feels Deidara's hand exploring his face, stoking his cheeks, outlining his lips. Sasori wants to reach out and hit him, or push him away, or hold him close, or something, but he is still tied up. "Deidara", he pleads. "Untie me."

He hears Deidara's voice in his ears. "Not yet, un."

Sasori feels Deidara's hand leave his face and perch softly on his right hips. "No.", he gasps. "Go away." He tries to open his eyes, but he can't. "Please.", he begs. The hand moves softly against his hip. A small groan escapes his lips.

Then suddenly, he screams, "No!"

He stands up, his strings breaking with a loud snap. His eyes open. The room is empty. No Deidara, no mist. He's all alone. He looks down at his own hands. His eyes widen. His fingers look familiar, but they're not his.

He's wooden! A puppet! How? No way!

Panic wells up inside Sasori! He runs to the wall and beats on it! He tries to yell, but he is speechless once again. He throws himself against the wall, beating at it with his fists. Once, twice, again and again!

The sound of cruel laughter fills the room, increasing his panic. He falls to the ground, shaking, his eyes wide with fear. The room grows dark. He feels himself falling apart, his body parts flying in opposite directions. "I hate you, Danna." Deidara's voice rings out through the dark. "You suck, un!"

And Sasori still can't scream.

Then he wakes up.

----------

Sasori opens his eyes and sits bolt upright, panting. What a horrible dream!

He glares at Deidara and Hidan who are standing nearby laughing their heads off. "What's so funny?" he asks. "If there's some joke, please share it."

Hidan seems to lose control over his legs. He falls over and lies on the ground whooping uproariously.

Deidara looks at Sasori, laughing louder than ever.

Sasori's eyes widen, and a pale blush spreads across his face. The look in Deidara's eyes… happy, but malicious… just the same as in his dream!

Then Sasori goes pale as a horrible thought hits him. Did he talk in his sleep? Did he call out Deidara's name? He gulps. His face feels hot. He rubs his cheek and… eew, what's this sticky stuff?

Blood? No, it looks too fake. Make-up perhaps? Sasori's embarrassment turns to fury as he guesses what happened. Stupid Deidara and his childish tricks!

Sasori wonders if he should boil Deidara in oil and serve him to Zetsu, or skin him alive and turn him into a puppet. Hm… a puppet. Sasori remembers his dream, and gives a big shudder. He stands up and quickly bolts to the bathroom, with Hidan and Deidara's screams of laughter following him.

-----

Back in the bathroom once more, Sasori stares at himself in the mirror, transfixed. What a sight! No wonder Deidara and Hidan were laughing their heads off.

Sasori turns his head to read the graffiti-like scrawl on his cheeks. There's something that looks like "Bastard" on his right cheek, and… is that "Fag" on his left? Yes, that definitely says "Fag".

Sasori finds himself frowning and pressing his chest with a clenched fist. Somehow, reading that word hurts a lot. Why does it hurt so much? Perhaps he shouldn't ask. He might arrive at an uncomfortable answer. Still… perhaps because his own Brat wrote the word?

Sasori gulps as scenes from the past months, nice memories rush through his head. Deidara giving him his nickname, Deidara in absurd swimming clothes, Deidara asking him to be friends, Deidara laughing, Deidara freaking out over a kid in a costume, Deidara's sleeping face muttering about soap, Deidara trying to feed him scrambled eggs, Deidara smiling, Deidara frowning, Deidara calling him "Danna"… memories of his happy blonde Brat.

Sasori shivers. Yes, that's the reason alright. Sasori wonders if he's actually in love with Deidara, or something. For a moment, he shudders at the thought.

Then, suddenly, the ache in his chest seems to lessen slightly! Sasori stares at his reflection in surprise. Love? Is he secretly in love with his Brat? Could this be the problem after all?

Cautiously, he lets his mind explore the question. As he thinks, he keeps coming to that same solution, and every time he thinks it, he feels ever so slightly better. Desperately, he tries to find some way out, to not believe it. However, after a few minutes, he finds there is no way he can escape it any more. The answer is there, right in front of him: Somehow, in the course of nine months, he has fallen in love.

That's strange. He didn't know he could fall in love.

He smiles a small smile at his reflection in the mirror, pulls a wad of toilet paper out of the dispenser, and starts washing the make-up off his face. He has trouble getting it off. The white stuff seems to have fused with his skin.

About fifteen minutes later, he leaves the bathroom feeling sore-faced. He pulls his Day off the puppet rack, and settles down to check her over. He will need her soon to practice tomorrow's battle with Chiyo.

(Continued in Part 3) 


	8. Chapter 5, Part 3

February: End (Part 3)

The shows are over for the night. The performers are gathered together in the dressing room, getting ready to leave.

Pein, jacket on and keys in hand, claps for their attention. "Gentlemen, we have a little problem." The performers drop what they are doing, and pay attention to Pein.

Pein looks at Zetsu.

Zetsu grins, and announces, "I got a date."

Pein sighs. "You see? We've got no one to clean up the theatre tonight, because Zetsu's busy. One or two of you are going to have to stay back and clean up instead. Whoever does will get a little bonus when we divide the money on Friday."

Pein looks expectantly at Kakuzu, who is practically drooling at the thought of extra money. However, Hidan ruins Kakuzu's chance of getting the money by grabbing his arm and pulling him out the door. "We're not doing any fucking cleaning. Seeya tomorrow, assholes!" he shouts over his shoulder.

Pein sighs again and shakes his head. He looks next at Itachi and Kisame. Itachi speaks up, saying, "I'm busy, and so is Kisame." Kisame grins and nods agreement.

"Fine. See you tomorrow," says Pein. As Itachi and Kisame leave, he turns his gaze onto Sasori and Deidara, saying simply, "You two?"

"Sure, we'll do it, un," says Deidara.

Pein looks at Sasori.

Sasori nods in agreement.

Pein throws the keys to the back door to Sasori, saying, "Lock up when you're done, ok?" He exits the theater, with Konan following behind.

Wordless, Sasori and Deidara pull brooms from a little closet backstage. They descend the steps from the stage and slip between the dark, empty seats where the audience had sat just a few minutes before. They begin to sweep up the dust.

After a few minutes, Deidara notices that there is much more dust than he had ever expected one night's show would bring in. He leans his broom against a seat and goes to empty his dustpan into a nearby trash can. As he comes back, he stares defiantly at Sasori, who is standing in one of the aisles watching him. "Aren't you going to sweep, un?" he asks.

Sasori shrugs and pretends to sweep the aisle, not remembering that Deidara has already swept it. "I don't like this kind of thing," he says quietly. "You're the clean one."

"Yeah, and you're the bastard slob," says Deidara, beginning to sweep.

Sasori frowns. "From 'Danna' to 'Bastard', huh? What are you going to call me next, 'Fag'?"

Deidara looks up at him, sneering. "Yeah, fag."

Sasori feels his temper creeping up on him. He pushes it down, and says, "Haven't you had enough revenge already? Look, I know you're angry, and I can understand why. I know what I said earlier was too harsh. Let it go."

Deidara stops sweeping and faces Sasori. "Are you trying to say sorry, un? Yeah, don't give me that crap. You're a bastard and a fag, and you know what? I hope someone rapes you, un."

Dei gets ready for Sasori to lunge at him and beat him to a pulp, but to his surprise, Sasori seems to shrink into his jacket. In the semi-darkness he looks older, almost his true age.

"You think I hate you, right?" Sasori says.

Dei feels taken aback. "You do hate me, Danna," he says loudly.

"You're wrong," Sasori says.

"What do you mean?" says Deidara, not hiding his confusion.

Sasori lifts his head and looks right into Deidara's eyes. The shadows projecting across his face strengthen his gaze, so Deidara can't look away. His mouth opens, and a series of quiet, arrow-like words slip out between his lips. "I love you, Brat," he says. "You won't believe me ever, but I do."

Deidara's mouth falls open in shock. "You what!"

"I love you," Sasori repeats. "Don't make me say it again."

"Well you have a funny way of showing it, un!" exclaims Deidara.

"You don't believe me," says Sasori, reading his face.

"Of course, I don't."

Sasori half-smiles. "Until today, I wouldn't have believed it myself either," he says. "But it's true."

Deidara stands there in shocked silence as Sasori stands up, and walks towards him.

He draws up close to Deidara, and raises his heels off the ground a few inches so his lips can meet Dei's. He kisses him once quickly, and then turns away. "Where's that damn old hag," he mutters. "She should be here already."

Deidara doesn't hear him muttering. He's transfixed, just staring at him, mouth agape. His skin tingles, and his heart beats so fast he's afraid it will beat its way right out of his chest. Time slows down to a snail's pace. His body acts before he knows what to do. He steps forward, the muscles in his right arm tightening and his hand closing into a fist. He sees Sasori turn towards him. He pulls his right arm back to strike.

Then, something goes wrong. His hand opens and reaches out forwards, along with his left, and his arms wrap around Sasori and pull him close. He hears Sasori's sharp intake of breath, and, a second later, feels his arms around him.

Time slows down completely, and stops. They stand there, with their arms around each other. No words. No thoughts. Just the warm pressure of two bodies pressed against each other.

"Hey, Kid! Is that you down there in the dark?"

Sasori and Deidara jump apart and their heads whip around to look at the old woman standing onstage.

"Yes," answers Sasori. "You're late."

"Well, aren't you a little ray of sunshine?" she shouted over her shoulder, walking off stage. "Come on. Let's get this over with, Kid."

Sasori sighs. For once, he doesn't really feel like practicing with his puppets. He walks down the aisle, up the stairs to the stage, and around the side of the curtain to the wings. He pulls the puppet Day off his rack, and carries her up the small spiral staircase to the platform hanging over the stage.

Taking his place next to Chiyo, he lets Day down to the stage carefully. She's only a little more than four feet tall and very light. He hangs her from one of the hooks on the platform's railing, and goes back down offstage. Picking up a blunt metal sword, he walks onstage and curls her fingers around its hilt. Using a small screwdriver, he tightens the screws in her fingers so that they hold their position. He goes back up to the platform, and unhooks her crossbar.

Turning to Chiyo, he asks, "You're ready?"

She cackles and says, "I've been ready for a while, kid. You going to open the curtain?"

Sasori frowns. "Deidara!" he yells. "Can you open the curtain for us?"

Dei doesn't reply, but Sasori sees him come in around the edge of the curtain and go into the part of the wings where the stage mechanism is. In quick jerks, the curtain opens in front of Sasori, exposing the empty chairs of the audience.

The two puppeteers begin to maneuver their puppets towards each other. Day menaces Chiyo's pink-haired teenager with her sword. The teenager brandishes her silver dagger, unafraid. They stand, as if each were waiting for the other to attack. Then, up on the platform, Sasori nods his head at Chiyo once. The puppets fly together, slicing the air just inches from each other.

Deidara watches the fight as he sweeps the wings of the theatre. He sees Sasori and Chiyo move closer together as the puppets do. He glances at Chiyo's face transfixed in concentration before focusing on Sasori, whose smile is strangely small and stiff. He doesn't look as happy as usual, thinks Dei. "Not that that's a surprise, un," he murmurs. His cheeks warm, and he begins to sweep harder.

He is considering going home, when something goes wrong onstage. Chiyo's puppet takes a step forward at the same time as Sasori's Day does. Her knife whizzes through the air, meeting one of Day's strings and severing it. Day's left arm, the swordless one, hangs limply at her side.

Sasori's smile vanishes instantly. "Why is her knife sharp?" he asks Chiyo, his voice as cold as a block of ice.

"I couldn't find her prop, so I gave her a kitchen knife instead," says Chiyo. "If you hadn't made that wrong move, kid, your doll wouldn't have been cut, but there you go. I guess you're still too young to know perfection."

"Wrong move!" exclaims Sasori, livid. "I did no such thing. You moved your puppet forwards onto my Day! You did it on purpose, you old bitch!" He maneuvers Day so her sword twists around one of Chiyo's teenager's strings. He pulls hard, and the string snaps. The teenager's head slumps forwards.

Dei, watching below, doesn't catch all their words, but he can see something has gone horribly wrong. He stops sweeping, watching as the rehearsed fight degenerates into a real one, with the puppets dancing lethally around each other as the two puppeteers jostle each other on the platform. He watches Day beat the teenager until her knife and wig fall off, but not before Day's head and right leg go limp, their strings cut. He sees Sasori lean far over the platform's railing in order to make Day's sword cross another of the teenage puppet's strings. He smiles. The reality of the fight makes it beautiful, he thinks. Because the puppets are being destroyed through the puppeteers' emotions instead of simply going through bland, planned motions, what he is witnessing is the creation of art of the truest sort. So, "Sasori-Danna can make real art even if he doesn't want to," Dei murmurs.

Then, he sees Chiyo raise her leg slowly. No, he thinks, shocked. The old lady is too arthritic and normal to do something like that, un. Nevertheless, he drops his broom and runs out onstage.

Sasori sees Dei running onstage, but before he can wonder why, he feels a hard, clublike object hit him hard behind his left knee. His eyes shut in pain, and he loses his balance and slips under the railing. First he feels air whooshing past him, then he hits something hard. Pain rushes through his skull, and he forgets how to breathe.

Much later, Sasori opens his eyes. At first, all he can see is a white haze. The haze soon settles into an unfamiliar roof with a rectangular fluorescent light attached to it. He looks around, and sees white cloth-and-metal walls. His surroundings along with the dull pain in his head and a pine-like disinfectant smell confirm his suspicions: he is in a hospital.

He strains hard and manages to sit up. As he touches the tight bandage around his head and wonders what happened and why the room seems to be swaying, one of the walls moves and a nurse looks in. "Oh," she says, smiling at him kindly. Her eyes flick to the clipboard hanging on the end of his bed. "You're awake, Mr. Akasuna! I'll go get the doctor."

For the next half an hour, Sasori is poked and prodded by a young female doctor. As she checks his vital signs, she explains to him that when he fell, a friend of his tried to catch him but the force of Sasori's fall knocked his friend to the ground. His friend was alright, but Sasori's head had hit the stage quite hard, leaving him with a pretty serious concussion. Sasori sits quietly listening to her, feeling disoriented. He takes the pill the doctor hands him, and drifts back into unconsciousness.

When he regains consciousness, he feels much better. The pain in his head has decreased.

"Danna!" says a familiar voice.

Sasori turns his head, smiling involuntarily. "Brat," he says.

Deidara is sitting on a folding chair next to Sasori's bed. He reaches out and slips his hand into Sasori's. "Can't you think of a better name to call a guy who's saved your life twice, un?" he says, grinning.

Sasori snorts. "You're my Brat, and that's it," he says. "But, thank you," he adds softly.

"No offense, but that's a cheap thank you," says Dei.

Sasori turns bright red. He pushes himself up on one elbow. In a low voice, he says, "What do you want me to do then? Buy you a pony? Kiss you?"

"That last one could work, un."

Dei leans forwards. Their lips meet.

"I told you guys they're queer," says a loud, brash voice.

"You're the fucking queer. Shut the fuck up." says another.

Sasori and Deidara pull away from each other quickly, staring in shock at Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan who had just arrived through one of the moveable walls.

"Yeah, I'm out of here," says Kisame. "C'mon Itachi. Let's go find Zetsu before he starts trying to eat sick people. We can come back and say hi when the blonde bitch leaves."

"I'll catch up to you later," says Itachi. Kisame leaves.

Itachi and Hidan draw up to the bedside. Itachi hands Sasori a box of chocolates. "These are from Pein and Konan," he says. "Pein says you should rest as long as you need to. He's talking with an old lawyer he clerked for to defend you in court for free. The lawsuit money you'll be getting out of the old lady should be enough to cover any hospital expenses you ring up."

Sasori nods. "Tell him and Konan I said thanks."

"How're you doing, bastard?" asks Hidan. "Man, you look like someone's fucked you in the head."

Sasori ignores the last part of Hidan's comment. "I'm ok." he says.

"Naw, you were kissing this fucker," says Hidan, play-punching Dei in the arm. "You must have the biggest fucking concussion in the Universe to want to fuck him."

"Shut up, un," says Dei, play-punching him back. "I don't mind."

Hidan shrugs. "In that case, you're both goddamn loonies. A match made in heaven in fact." He grins. "Yeah, may Jashin fuck both of you and make you each other's bitches forever."

Sasori and Deidara exchange glances. "Uh, thanks?"says Dei.

At that moment, the nurse enters the makeshift room. "Sorry, guys, visiting hour's over," she says. Turning to Sasori she continues, "Dr. Shizune will be around to check you in fifteen minutes."

Itachi and Hidan say goodbye and leave, but Deidara asks the nurse for one more minute. She agrees and waits outside. Dei hurries up to Sasori's bedside. Leaning down, he kisses him once. "Get better soon, ok? We've got lots of things to talk about., un."

Sasori's eyebrows rise. "Like what?" he asks cautiously.

Two pink spots appear on Dei's cheeks. "Oh, this and that… especially about these two puppets I found in a box in the storeroom." He leans closer to Sasori and whispers, "One of them looks so much like me, it's creepy. Are they love-dolls or something, un?"

"I told you not to go into that room!" roars Sasori. "Stupid Brat!"

"So they are love dolls!" gasps Dei.

"No!" shouts Sasori, glaring at him. "All my puppets are anatomically correct, but they're not for that!"

Before he can say another word, though, the nurse enters the room, looking upset. "Right, that's enough," she says. "Please leave, sir."

Dei shouts a hasty goodbye over his shoulder as the nurse pushes him out. Sasori sinks back down into the bed, sighing. "Stupid Brat," he murmurs softly. He opens the box of chocolate and tastes one.

The End

* * *

And there you have it. The end of this fanfic. I wrote it years ago, but I forgot to upload it... Sorry if I left you hanging! I hope the ending makes up for the wait. Originally, Sasori was meant to die in the fall, but I decided that would be too tragic. (Albeit, more true to the real story in Naruto.)

Please review if you liked it! If you didn't like it, please review as well; I adore constructive criticism.

Bye!


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